GERMAN open-access operator Hamburg-Köln-Express (HKX), owned by Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), United States, is to suspend completely operation of its Hamburg - Cologne service between October 4 and December 10.

DUTCH infrastructure manager Prorail has released details of the 2018 timetable, which starts on December 10 2017, where the country’s 40-plus train operators plan to operate an all-time high of over 160 million train-km. This compares with 125 million train-km in 2003.

THE Swiss Canton of Valais has accepted an offer from BLS to take over the operation of the car shuttle through the Simplon tunnel between Brig and Iselle, Italy, from Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) starting on December 10.

CHINA Railway Corporation’s new CR400AF Fuxing high-speed trains entered passenger service on the Beijing - Tianjin route on August 21.

THE first train ran on Israel’s new 57km A1 line linking Tel Aviv with Jerusalem on August 20 from from Tel-Aviv to the end of the Latrun bridge which is now the longest bridge in Israel.

A 70:30 joint venture of FirstGroup and MTR took over Britain’s South Western franchise on August 20 from Stagecoach, which has operated the franchise as South West Trains (SWT) since the start of rail privatisation in 1996.

THE first batch of four trains for the Doha metro network were unloaded at Hamad Port in Qatar on August 20 after completing their 21-day sea voyage from Kobe, Japan.

TRIAL operation began on August 19 on the first 19.6km section of metro Line 2 in Nanchang, China, from Metro Central south to Nanlu.

GERMANY’s infrastructure manager DB Network has signed a three-year framework ultrasonic rail inspection agreement with Gleistechnik Süd, a subsidiary of Vossloh. There is an an option to extend the agreement for one year.

WITH construction of the new Koralm Line from Graz to Klagenfurt now in full swing between Werndorf and Klagenfurt, it has now been decided to start construction of a new 19km line between Graz and Werndorf in 2019.