THE first of 10 diesel-electric locomotives being supplied to All Aboard Florida for its new Brightline inter-city service in Florida has completed initial track testing at the Siemens plant in Sacramento, California, and moved for the first time under its own power.

FOLLOWING months of preparation, the railway world is set to descend on Berlin this month for the leading showpiece in the railway exhibition calendar: InnoTrans which runs from September 20-23. Kevin Smith and Dan Templeton are here to guide you though some of the highlights.

AFTER several months of speculation over the future of its Belfort facility, Alstom confirmed on September 7 that production will cease at the plant in 2018.

With recent approval of the Fourth Railway Package, the process for authorising new rail vehicles and certifying train operators is set for a radical overhaul. European Union Agency for Railways executive director
Josef Doppelbauer tells Keith Barrow how these processes will be streamlined, harmonised and centralised in just three years.

TORONTO and Hamilton transit authority Metrolinx has appointed CH2M as vehicle technology consultant for the Toronto Regional Express Rail (RER) project.

FUTURE locomotive acquisitions for South African state-owned rail operators Transnet and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) will be consolidated under one umbrella organisation if the country's treasury and public enterprise departments get their way.

THE board of Danish State Railways (DSB) has approved a proposal to acquire 26 electric locomotives to replace the fleet of class ME diesel locomotives built by Henschel in 1981-85.

THE first two class 45-000 six-axle diesel locomotives for Transnet Freight Rail, South Africa, were officially handed over by CRRC Coropration vice president Mr Sun Yongcai, at a ceremony in Durban on August 11.

INDIAN Railways (IR) is exploring options to extricate itself from a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) precondition that binds it to acquire rolling stock and systems equipment from Japanese companies, after talks with a Kawasaki-led consortium over the acquisition of 200 freight locomotives broke down.

SOUTH African freight logistics, shipping and financial service company Grindrod has announced plans to sell its locomotive assembly business due to the company’s deteriorating financial performance and an impairment of Rand 675m ($US 50.6m) for its rail businesses.