SINGAPORE's Land Transport Authority (LTA) is exploring two alignment options for the proposed 50km east-west Cross Island Line (CRL) in the island state's Central Catchment Nature Reserve (CCNR) due to concerns over ground conditions.

TESTING began on the first completed section of Delhi metro Line 8 (Magenta Line) Delhi metro network on June 8, when the first low-speed test runs took place on a 3.5km section between Kalindi Kunj depot and Okhla Vihar station.

STATE Railway of Thailand (SRT) says it expects to take delivery of an initial batch of 13 metre-gauge inter-city coaches from CRRC Corporation, China, within the next few weeks.

BRITISH Steel, which was formed following the purchase of Tata Steel's Long Products Europe division by Greybull Capital in May, has launched a new premium-coated rail called Zinoco.

THE premier of the Canadian state of Ontario Mrs Kathleen Wynne visited the site of the future Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station in York on June 6 to mark the completion of tracklaying on the Toronto-York Spadina subway extension.

THE government of the Brazilian state of São Paulo announced on June 7 that TC-Linha 4 Amarela, a consortium of Comsa and Tiisa Infraestrutura e Investimentos, has been selected to complete the second phase of metro Line 4.

TESTING of the first Siemens Vectron for Czech rail freight operator ČD Cargo began on the Czech mainline network on May 31, when the locomotive ran under its own power between Pořičany and Velím on the Prague - Kolín line.

CHILEAN State Railways (EFE) has awarded Indra, Spain, a 10-year contract worth €6.9m to supply, install, configure, test and maintain a multiservice IP/MPLS data transmission network.

ABELLIO Rail Südwest has awarded Bombardier a €215m contract to supply 43 Talent 2 EMUs for Baden-Württemberg Network 1a (Neckar Network), which Abellio will operate for 13 years from 2019.

THE board of Sound Transit has unanimously approved changes to the Sound Transit 3 Draft Plan (ST3), bringing light rail extensions included in the strategy forward by 2-5 years and adding further new lines to Renton, Kirkland, and North Seattle.