CZECH Railways (ČD) announced on April 14 that it has launched three international tenders for new rolling stock with a total value of around Koruna 10.8bn ($US 451m).

A new fleet of low-floor LRVs for Krasnodar will be assembled in the Russian city under a letter of intent signed on April 14 by the city's mayor Mr Vladimir Evlanova, CEO of public transport operator KTTU Mr Alexei Knyazev, and the president of PC Transport Systems Mr Feliks Vinokur.

THE troubled procurement of regional train and bus services in the Dutch province of Limburg overcame its final legal obstacle on April 14 when incumbent operator Veolia Transport Nederland dropped its appeal against the decision to award the concession to Arriva.

SWEDISH national passenger operator SJ signed a contract worth more than SKr 1bn ($US 120m) with Knorr Bremse subsidiary Swedtrac on April 14 for the interior refurbishment of its fleet of 36 X2000 tilting inter-city trains.

TRENITALIA says it is carrying out additional inspections on its new fleet of Pesa ATR220 regional DMUs following the discovery of bogie frame cracks on similar trains operating in Poland.

WABTEC has been awarded a $US 30m contract to supply Positive Train Control (PTC) equipment for Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District's (NICTD) 140km South Shore Line, which links Millennium station in Chicago with South Bend, Indiana.

THE first of 34 Alstom Citadis 402 LRVs for the initial phase of the light rail network in Sidi Bel Abbès arrived in the Algerian city on April 8.

CZECH Railways (ČD) announced on April 13 that it will equip 663 vehicles of 33 different types with ETCS Level 2 as deployment of the system continues under infrastructure manager SŽDC's ERTMS National Implementation Plan.

VIAPORTO, the consortium responsible for operating and maintaining the 67km light metro network in the Portuguese city of Porto, has awarded EMEF, Portugal, a €11.3m two-year contract to carry out light maintenance on its LRV fleet.

The government of the Australian state of New South Wales has announced the start of the tender process to build twin-bore railway tunnels under Sydney Harbour and the city centre for Stage 2 of the Sydney Metro project.