UNIPART Rail, Britain, and Arabian Railway Company (ARC) announced on March 12 that they will form a joint venture to deliver projects, supply chain services and consultancy in Saudi Arabia.

CUBAN authorities and Russian Railways (RZD) announced further details of a plan to upgrade Cuba's railway network on March 8 following the conclusion of a study conducted by RZD International.

DUBAI's Road and Transport Authority (RTA) and Alstom, leader of the Expolink consortium, has awarded Thales a contract to provide systems for the Red Line metro extension and upgrade project.

THE Dutch court for social economic law has ruled that the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure's decision to award a direct concession to Netherlands Railways (NS) to operate HSL-South was legal.

THE stations and connections division of French National Railways (SNCF) has signed a research and exchange agreement with MIT Senseable City Lab, United States, to improve station comfort.

KOREAN national operator Korail tested a 580m, 40-wagon freight train on March 8 between Obong station in Gyeonggi Province and Busanshinhang station in Busan.

THE first batch of freight wagons for Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) arrived at the port of Mombasa at the end of February.

THE preferred route alignment for Malaysia’s East Coast Rail Link was revealed on March 8, when prime minister Mr Najib Razak visited the offices of the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) in Kuala Lumpur to officially launch a three month public consultation on the project.

STADLER announced that it will form a joint venture with Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) to take over maintenance of the Kiss EMU fleet used by open-access competitor Westbahn.

BRITISH Columbia's minister of transportation and infrastructure Mr Todd Stone announced on March 9 that the Canadian province will study options for establishing commuter rail services on Vancouver Island.