GERMAN Rail (DB) has recruited investment bank Lazard to explore options for its Arriva passenger rail and bus subsidiary, including a stock market listing, while it is also looking at the future structure of its DB Schenker railfreight division.

A €455m financing plan for the first phase of Paris's Tram Express South tram-train line was approved by the board of Ile-de-France Transport Authority, bringing the project a step closer to construction, which is due to start in the first half of next year.

EUROPEAN Union transport ministers agreed on October 8 to allow open-access passenger operators to compete with incumbent national railways from 2020 as well as reforms to the way subsidised services are provided.

THE next InnoTrans exhibition, which will be staged in Berlin on September 20-26 2016, will be more attractive to visitors with a better App and a new conference corner.

MALAYSIA's Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) and Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) have issued a request for information (RFI) for the proposed Kuala Lumpur - Singapore high-speed project.

RHINE-Ruhr Transport (VRR) has published a tender in the Official Journal of the European Union for operation of eight regional lines with a total volume of 11.9 million train-km per year.

BRITISH infrastructure manager Network Rail (NR) has selected Perpetuum, Britain, to provide track condition analysis using vibration data from thousands of Perpetuum-equipped wheelsets on Southeastern class 375 and class 376 trains.

IRJ at Railway Interchange: Pintsch Tiefenbach, Germany, had a prototype SIL4 software-based axle counter on display in Minneapolis.

IRJ at Railway Interchange: Wi-Tronix, United States, launched two new in-cab driver safety systems in Minneapolis.

SAUDI Railway Company (SAR) has placed an order with The Greenbrier Companies, United States, for approximately 1200 tanks wagons to support industrial mining operations led by Ma'aden at Wa'ad Shamal Industrial City in the Sirhan-Turaif region of northern Saudi Arabia.