With an annual purchasing volume of more than €10bn, German Rail is a key customer for thousands of rail industry suppliers. Chief procurement officer Uwe Günter tells Keith Barrow how DB's procurement strategy seeks to harness both innovation and standardisation to improve performance and reduce life-cycle costs.

THE president of Alstom Transport, Mr Henri Poupart-Lafarge, inaugurated the company's new €15m Citadis LRV production line at Taubaté in the Brazilian state of São Paulo on March 3.

ST PETERSBURG Metro has awarded OOO Vagonmaš, the Russian subsidiary of Škoda Transportation, a Roubles 3.8bn ($US 61m) contract to supply eight six-car trains for metro Line 3.

BRITAIN's Rolling Stock Strategy Steering Group (RSSSG) chaired by Mr Richard Brown has published its third annual update of its passenger rolling stock strategy for the next 30 years which calls for the national fleet to be expanded by between 52% and 99% to meet growing demand.

THE Premier of the Australian state of Victoria Mr Daniel Andrews announced on March 3 that the state will place an order for five additional six-car X'Trapolis EMUs for the Melbourne suburban network, safeguarding the immediate future of the Alstom assembly plant at Ballarat.

CZECH Railways (CD) has awarded Škoda Transportation contracts totalling Koruna 1.1bn ($US 45m) to modernise 93 locomotive-hauled coaches for Prague – Berlin – Hamburg EuroCity services.

ROLLING stock leasing company Eversholt Rail Group announced on March 2 that it has reached an agreement to sell its entire fleet of freight wagons to the British subsidiary of Paris-based wagon leasing company Nacco for an undisclosed sum.

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) is to test the Erex IT energy management and billing system on 50 of its freight locomotives developed by the Eress consortium of five European infrastructure managers and one railway.

BRITAIN's Department for Transport (DfT) issued an invitation to tender (ITT) for the new Northern and TransPennine franchises on February 27, confirming that the fleet of Pacer diesel railbuses built in the 1980s and currently in use with Northern Rail will be eliminated with a new build of at least 120 multiple unit vehicles.

NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) has launched an investigation into allegations of corruption in the tender for a €510m contract to supply 118 Sprinter EMUs, which was awarded to CAF in December.