THE European Commission (EC) announced that rail projects in Greece will receive funding from the European Union (EU) cohesion funds, as part of a €1.3bn investment which will allow major projects that started in the 2007-2013 financial period to be completed in the current 2014-2020 period.

SOUTH Africa’s president Mr Jacob Zuma unveiled on April 4 the first diesel locomotive to be designed, engineered and manufactured by Transnet Engineering, the engineering and manufacturing division of Transnet.

EUROPE’s Shift²Rail Joint Undertaking (JU) has received 60 proposals worth €192.8m under its 2017 call for research projects and a funding request of €136.5m, which is more than twice the available funding of €60.8m.

CONVENTIONAL train services have been withdrawn between Rotterdam and Hook of Holland to allow the line between Schiedam Central and Hook of Holland to be converted to metro operation and connected to the Rotterdam metro.

BRITISH Steel has opened a new long length rail logistics centre in Lecco, Italy, in order to meet growing demand in Italy.

STADLER, Switzerland, is considering moving the production of double-deck trains from its existing outdated factory in Altenrhein to a new facility in St Margrethen in order to reduce costs and be able to continue producing these trains in Switzerland.

SIEMENS has delivered the first two of 10 new Vectron multi-system locomotives to Alpha Trains which are being leased to TX Logistik, Germany, to transport freight between Germany, Austria and Italy.

THE Canadian government will provide $C 1.8bn ($US 1.35bn) for the GO Transit Regional Express Rail (GO RER) project in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area of southern Ontario.

A tender has been issued by Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) for new DMUs under a five-year framework contract with an option to extend it by another five years.

SNCF Mobility has awarded Alstom a contract worth approximately €250m for a further 30 Coradia trains for use on French Intercity and regional services.