FINNISH state-owned railway, VR Group, says it will begin the acquisition of 80 electric locomotives, with an option for an additional 97, in the next few months to replace its oldest SR-1s, 112 of which were built by Novcherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant between 1973 and 1996.

THE Pakistan government will inject Rs 4bn ($US 46m) into Pakistan Railways (PR) in an attempt to revive its railfreight business, which has almost ceased to operate with only one scheduled freight train a day.

TRANSNET, South Africa's national transport company, has brought forward to the next two years rail and port projects worth Rand 6.1bn ($US 755m) previously scheduled for the tail-end of its Rand 110.6bn five-year capital investment plan.

The first Vossloh Euro 4000 locomotive for Israel Railways arrived in the country from Spain last month.

Latvian Railways subsidiary, LDZ Rolling Stock Service, presented the first rebuilt ChME3 Co-Co diesel locomotive at the 1520 Strategic Partnership conference in Riga.

GERMAN Rail (DB)and private German passenger operators are establishing framework contracts with chosen suppliers ahead of future regional passenger rolling stock tenders.

ALSTOM tested a new Co-Co Prima electric freight locomotive for China at the Velim test centre, Czech Republic, during November 2009.