THE Austrian cities of Linz and Graz both launched extensions of their tram networks on September 12.

IRAN’s national passenger rail operator, Raja Rail Transportation, has issued a call for tender for the supply and maintenance of a fleet of 250 passenger coaches of three types.

BASQUE metre-gauge operator EuskoTren opened a 1km branch of the Metro Donostialdea suburban network in San Sebastian on September 12, with the launch of the branch from Herrera to Altza.

THE President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Mr Carles Puigdemont, has opened a 1.5km extension to the Catalonia Government Railways (FGC) Vallès Line with three new stations in the Sabadell area of Barcelona.

RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin took part in the ceremony to mark the launch of passenger traffic on the Moscow Central Ring railway on September 10.

A consortium of Ineco, Spain, its Mexican subsidiary Inecomex, Spain’s infrastructure manager Adif, and Cal y Mayor y Asociados, Mexico, have been awarded a contract to supervise the construction of an extension to Line 12 of the Mexico City metro.

AMSTERDAM Municipal Transport (GVB) has chosen CAF as its preferred bidder for a contract to supply a fleet of 63 low-floor bi-directional light rail vehicles with an option for another 60 vehicles.

THE Australian state of Victoria announced on September 12 that the Evolution Rail consortium, which comprises Downer, CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles and Plenary Group, has been selected to deliver the High Capacity Metro Trains (HCMT) public-private partnership (PPP) project for the Melbourne suburban rail network.

THE CEO of Italian State Railways (FS) has set out his future strategy for FS covering five key areas - mergers, the planned IPO, expansion abroad, door-to-door travel, and freight restructuring – which will form part of FS’ 10-year plan to be presented at the end of September.

HONG Kong’s MTR Corporation held a ceremony on September 8 to mark the breakthrough of the 11km Tai Wai - Hung Hom tunnel section of the Shatin to Central Link (SCL) metro project.