THE French city of St Etienne has selected CAF in a €42m contract to supply 16 LRVs for the city's 11.9km light rail network, which consists of three lines and 35 stations. The vehicles are scheduled for delivery in spring 2016.

TANZANIA Railway's (TRL) deputy managing director and chief finance officer have been suspended by the country's transport minister Mr Harrison Mwakyembe as investigations into the controversial acquisition of 25 wagons from Indian firm Hindustan Engineering and Industries gets underway.

BOMBARDIER says that it will not compete in a tender for a contract to supply a new generation of high-speed trains to Amtrak for the Boston – New York – Washington DC Northeast Corridor (NEC), citing changes in the specification for its withdrawal.

JSC Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty (LKZ), Kazakhstan, has delivered the first of a batch of 1520mm-gauge TE33A six-axle diesel locomotives for Turkmenistan Railways (TPK).

NAMIBIA's state-owned railway TransNamib is seeking to acquire 21 secondhand GE U20C diesel locomotives following problems with new Chinese-built motive power.

DANISH State Railways (DSB) released the latest independent assessment of its AnsaldoBreda IC4 DMUs on December 5, detailing the current status of the troubled fleet and the measures necessary to ensure the trains operate reliably.

ALSTOM has agreed to purchase an additional 25% stake in its Kazakhstan locomotive joint venture EKZ from Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) increasing its holding to 50%, which will expand the company's scope to include maintenance activities through a dedicated facility in Astana.

KOREA's national passenger operator Korail has placed a Won 154.4bn ($US 138m) order with Hyundai Rotem for 22 EMUs for commuter services. The trains will be deployed on the Donghae Nambu line in southeast Korea and the new Seongnam - Yeoju Line, work on which is due to be completed by the end of 2015.

LITHUANIAN Railways (LG) has placed an order with Škoda Vagonka for an additional three class 575 1520mm-gauge double-deck City Elefant EMUs for €27.2m.