BRITISH open-access operator Direct Rail Services has awarded Vossloh Spain a contract to supply seven additional class 68 UKLight locomotives via Beacon Rail Leasing, Britain.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held at Suchsdorf in the northern German state of Schleswig Holstein on July 17 to mark the start of construction on a new production facility for Vossloh Locomotives.

A BOMBARDIER Traxx AC3 Last Mile locomotive underwent trials with open-access railfreight operator LTE Logistics and Transport at the start of July.

BRAZIL's National Bank for Social and Economic Development (BNDES) has announced that it will provide loans totalling Reais 70.5m ($US 21.9m) to finance 19 diesel locomotives ordered by freight operators VLI and Rumo Logistics from GE Transportation.

PHU Locomotive, Poland, signed an agreement on July 8 to acquire three Gama locomotives from Pesa on behalf of Polish open-access operator Ecco Rail.

NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) has exercised an option with Bombardier for 18 additional class 186 Traxx multi-system locomotives, which will be used to operate 160km/h passenger services from Amsterdam to Rotterdam and The Hague via the HSL South high-speed line.

A new board of directors at TransNamib is providing a life-line to Namibia's railway, which has suffered from decades of under-investment in its network and fleet, as Paul Ash reports from Windhoek.

FINLAND's VR Group announced at the end of May that Siemens has begun assembling the first class Sr3 Vectron electric locomotive at its Allach plant near Munich.