AN agreement has been reached between the Israeli government and CityPass, the concessionaire of the Jerusalem light rail network, to extend the Red Line at each end and build a section of the Green Line.

TANZANIA’s president Mr John Magufuli officially launched construction on April 12 of the first phase of the country’s 2561km standard-gauge railway project which will eventually link the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam with Mwanza on Lake Victoria and Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika, as well as neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi.

A contract worth around Yuan 2.51bn ($US 364.5m) has been awarded to CRRC Qingdao Sifang for a fleet of 11 eight-car trains with a design speed of 350km/h to operate on the 142.3km Jakarta - Bandung high-speed line which is due to open in 2019.

SHANGHAI Metro has placed a Yuan 543m ($US 78m) contract with the CRRC Nanjing Puzhen Rail Transport joint venture for additional cars for Line 2.

THE mayor of Izmir Mr Aziz Kocaoglu inaugurated the 8.8km Karşiyaka - Mavişehir light rail line on April 11, adding 14 stations to the city’s expanding urban rail network.

BOMBARDIER and Siemens are discussing a possible merger between their two railway equipment manufacturing division, Bombardier Transportation and Siemens Mobility, according to a report by Bloomberg.

GE Transportation announced on April 12 that it has completed the acquisition of a 50% stake in JSC Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty (LKZ) from Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ).

ACCORDING to a study by SCI Verkehr, Germany, the world market for metro cars is set to grow at an annual rate of 1-2% from what it describes as a very high current market volume of more than €8bn.

FRANCE’s Institute of Technological Research (IRT) SystemX, together with French National Railways (SNCF) and Alstom, has launched a two-year project to automate the observation functions of train drivers.

SWEDISH open-access operator MTR Express announced on April 12 that it will reduce journey times for its Stockholm - Gothenburg services after its fleet of Stadler Flirt trains received certification from rail regulator Transportstyrelsen to operate at their maximum speed of 200km/h.