THE first two vehicles from a fleet of 20 four-car driverless trains being built by Hitachi Rail Italy (HRI) for the Honolulu metro arrived in Hawaii on March 24.

THE Italian autonomous province of Trento has awarded Trenitalia a contract to operate regional services on the Trento - Venice and Verona Porta Nuova - Bolzano lines for nine years from the end of this year.

HIGH-speed services began operating through the 53.8km Seikan tunnel between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido on March 26, with the launch of commercial services on the Hokkaido Shinkansen from Shin-Aomori to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto.

THE first of seven new trains for the Genoa metro was unveiled to the media at Brignole station on March 24, before entering passenger service on the 6.5km line to Brin.

ALBTAL Transport Company (AVG) has exercised an option with a consortium of Vossloh Kiepe and Stadler Rail Valencia for a further for 25 CityLink NET 2012 tram-trains, which will take its total of these vehicles to 75.

THE Thai government is to finance construction of the Bangkok - Nakhon Ratchasima - Nhong Khai standard-gauge line independently after failing to agree terms with China on the creation of a Sino-Thai joint venture to take the project forward.

THE first of 30 low-floor LRVs being supplied by Bozankaya, Turkey, for the light rail network in Kayseri was handed over to the mayor of the Turkish city Mr Mustafa Çelik on March 23.

BRITAIN's Rolling Stock Strategy Steering Group, which combines rolling stock leasing companies and the Rail Delivery Group, says the national train fleet could double in size by 2045 to meet increasing passenger demand.

A new Danish rail speed record was set on the night of March 21/22 when a Hector Rail locomotive operating on behalf of infrastructure manager Banedanmark reached 235.8km/h during testing.

JR East has awarded a contract to Toshiba to supply its H2One autonomous hydrogen energy supply system for installation at Musashi-Mizonokuchi station on the Nambu Line in Kawasaki City. The system will start operating in the first half of 2017.