THE FRENCH region of Rhône-Alpes announced on February 21 that it is forming an association with eight other regions with the aim of taking over the procurement and ownership of rolling stock for regional services from French National Railways (SNCF).

GREATER Wellington Regional Council has sold 34 redundant class EM emus built by Ganz-Mavag, Hungary, in 1982, to an unnamed buyer in South Africa, which will refurbish the trains for re-use in Africa.

CHINA Southern Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation (CSR) formally presented the first of a fleet of ten diesel trains for Iraqi Republic Railways (IRR) to Iraq's ambassador to Beijing Dr Abdul Karim Mostafa and other dignitaries at the CSR Sifang plant in Qingdao on February 17.

CHINA Southern Rolling Stock Corporation (CSR) subsidiary CSR Sifang has been awarded a contract to supply 32 four-car emus for the first phase of the Wenzhou City Railway network.

ITALIAN open-access operator GTS Rail has awarded two contracts to supply locomotives and wagons for use on intermodal services.

POLISH long-distance operator PKP Intercity has selected Pesa, Poland to supply and maintain 20 160km/h emus in a deal worth Zlotys 1.32bn ($US 430m).

OSLO airport express operator Flytoget has launched a tender for new trains after passenger numbers on its services from Gardemoen Airport to Oslo Central and Drammen reached record levels in 2013.

WAGON leasor, VTG, has initiated a pilot project to fit low-noise LL brake blocks to tank wagons used by chemical company Evonik Industries to collate data on the brake's kilometric performance and maintenance requirements.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) announced on February 11 that it plans to continue the modernisation of its motive power fleet this year with the acquisition of 629 new locomotives at a total cost of Roubles 76.1bn ($US 2.17bn).

COLOGNE Transport Authority (KVB) and Düsseldorf's Rheinbahn have issued a joint invitation to tender for a contract to supply 66 high-floor LRVs with an option for 12 additional vehicles.