RIO de Janeiro added a second line to the Porto Maravilha light rail network on February 6, when the city’s mayor Mr Marcelo Crivella inaugurated the initial section of Line 2 between Saara and Praça XV (Barcas).

CHINA Railway Investment Corporation (Cric) has issued tenders for contracts to supply 586 electric locomotives and 40,000 freight wagons to China Railway Corporation (CRC).

MILAN Transport (ATM) exercised an option with Hitachi Rail Italy (HRI) on February 8 for 15 additional Leonardo metro trains.

ALSTOM announced on February 6 that it has been awarded a €17m contract by Shanghai Shentong to supply traction systems, static inverters (SIV) and train control monitoring systems (TCMS) for four new metro cars, which will operate on Shanghai metro line 2.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) announced on February 8 that it will allocate Roubles 1.9bn ($US 32.1m) towards an ongoing project to reconstruct the Trubnaya - Verkhniy Baskunchak - Aksaraiskaya line in southern Russia.

TANZANIA’s government has awarded a contract for the construction of 205km of Tanzania’s proposed standard gauge railway to Yapi Merkez Insaat Ve Sanayi (YMIVS), Turkey, and Mota-Engil, Portugal.

BRITAIN’s Railway Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) has unveiled its Capability Delivery Plan (CDP) for the British network, which is described as the “blueprint for the age of the digital train.”

THE government of Azerbaijan has secured a €277m loan from a consortium of Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and the French branch of HSBC Bank to purchase 50 locomotives for use on the Baku - Tbilisi - Kars line.

BRITISH infrastructure manager Network Rail (NR) announced on February 7 that although the London Overground line between Gospel Oak and Barking will reopen to passengers on February 27, the installation of all of the overhead wires has not been completed on time and more work is required.

TRIAL operation began on February 2 on the new express metro link between Taipei and Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan’s busiest, ahead of the start of a limited service on February 16 and full operation on March 2.