RAILPROS, which is lead programme manager for the Redlands Passenger Rail Project in California, has awarded a contract to CH2M to assist with development and implementation of the $US 250m commuter rail scheme.

MR Patrick Jeantet, the newly-appointed CEO of French infrastructure manager SNCF Network, visited British Steel's Hayange rail mill in northeast France on June 14 to sign a contract for the supply of 120,000 tonnes of rail.

MTR Corporation and FirstGroup announced on June 16 that they will form a joint venture to bid for Britain's South Western franchise after the arrangement was approved by the Department for Transport.

THE first Silkworm low-floor LRV for the initial phase of the light rail network in the Songiang district of Shanghai was unveiled at the Rail+Metro China exhibition in Shanghai on June 14.

A Franco-Indian consortium led by Systra and including Aecom, Egis Rail and Rites has been appointed general consultant for the first phase of the Nagpur metro.

CZECH municipally-owned infrastructure manager Železnice Desná (ŽD), which owns two branch lines totalling 22km in Moravia, has completed a project electrify and modernise the 19km Šumperk - Kouty nad Desnou line.

AUSTRIAN Federal Railways (ÖBB) signed an agreement with the City of Vienna and the Austrian Ministry of Transport on June 14 to invest €450m to improve and expand the Vienna S-Bahn network.

GERMANY's Rhine-Main Transport Authority (RMV) announced on June 13 that regional operator Vias has ordered four Alstom Lint 54 DMUs for the Odenwald network south of Frankfurt-am-Main.

CHEMNITZ Transport (CVAG) signed a contract with Škoda Transportation on June 14 for 14 standard-gauge ForCity low-floor LRVs, which will replace the German city's ageing fleet of Tatra trams.