THE French city of Caen has awarded a contract to provide design and project management services for its planned light rail network to ASyAS, a consortium of French companies Artélia, Setec, Attica, and Signes.

THE Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia) and the metro authorities from the cities of Jeddah and Mecca are in the final stages of producing a joint request for proposals (RFP) for the Mecca and Jeddah metro projects.

THE European Commission (EC) has issued new guidelines on the enforcement of rail passenger rights amid concerns that member states and train operators are failing to comply with European legislation.

SWISS passenger operator BLS has initiated a three-year, SFr 30.7m ($US 32.6m) programme to upgrade 36 three and four car Nina EMUs, which will extend the service life of the trains for a further 15-20 years.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has announced that it will introduce a Moscow - St Petersburg - Tallinn service from July 10 two months after Estonian operator GoRail ceased operation of its remaining Estonia - Russia cross-border trains.

MTR says the Express Rail Link project to construct a high-speed line from West Kowloon in Hong Kong to the Chinese border and Shenzhen is expected to exceed its budget by 30%, or $HK 20bn ($US 2.58bn), and the opening will be further delayed until the third quarter of 2018.

IN response to growing demand, Medellin Metro has selected CAF to supply 20 three-car trains for the 34.5km two-line metro network in Colombia's second city.

NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) has reached an agreement with Strukton Rail to acquire its subsidiary NS Spooraansluitingen (NSS), which owns and operates lines between the Dutch national railway network and private sidings.

HELSINKI celebrated the opening of the new 18km Ring Line on July 1 with 80,000 passengers using services on the new line on its inaugural day of operations.

A two-year contract for the operation of regional train services in Sicily was signed on June 25 by the island's regional councillor for transport Mr Giovanni Battista Pizzo and Mr Orazio Iacono, Trenitalia's national director for regional transport.