AUSTRIANS travelled further by rail than the citizens of any other European Union member state in 2015, according to figures released by the country's rail regulator Schienen-Control on July 13, which show the average distance travelled reached 1427km per inhabitant, a figure exceeded only by the Swiss.

GERMANY's per capita investment in rail infrastructure ranks poorly alongside that of other major European economies, according to a study published on July 12 by German transport consultancy SCI Verkehr and Allianz pro Schiene, a coalition of 22 non-profit organisations and over 120 companies from across the German rail industry.

IRISH Rail (IE) operated a 440m-long container freight train between Dublin North Wall and Claremorris on June 27 as part of trials to introduce longer freight trains later this year to boost its competitiveness.

THE president of Russian Railways (RZD), Mr Oleg Belozerov, and the CEO of China Railway Corporation (CRC), Mr Sheng Guangji, signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Beijing on June 25 in the presence of President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China.

DUTCH infrastructure manager Prorail confirmed at this week's TEN-T Days conference in Rotterdam that it is planning to trial automated operation of freight trains on the Betuweroute dedicated freight line, which links Rotterdam with the German border near Emmerich.

A TRIAL intermodal train from the Chinese port of Lianyungang to Herne in Germany's Ruhr region arrived at its destination on June 21 having completed the 11,300km journey across Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, and Poland in 17 days.

FIVE European railway and freight associations and European Union (EU) transport ministers have each pledged to boost the competitiveness of rail freight on the nine TEN-T freight corridors.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD), Gazprom, Transmashholding (TMH) and Sinara signed an agreement on June 17 at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum aimed at increasing the use of natural gas as a fuel for rail transport.

RAIL freight in the Netherlands continued to make a strong recovery in 2015, according to statistics published by the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) on June 21, which show overall volumes increased by 7% compared with 2014 to 42 million tonnes.

VR Transpoint has launched a collaboration with Innofreight, Austria, to develop a new type of freight wagon, named Finnowagon, for rail logistics in Finland, the aim being to create a more flexible service for rail logistics customers.