CIVIL works have begun on the first phase of the third light metro line in Mexico's second-largest city Guadalajara.

LOCOMOTIVE leasing company Akiem has signed a contract worth €33m with Bombardier for the delivery of 10 140km/h Traxx DC locomotives, with an option for up to 10 additional units placing the value of the contract at approximately €65m.

POLISH open-access operator CTL Logistics, Poland, carried approximately 7 million tonnes of railfreight in the first half of 2014, including 1.3 million tonnes in Germany, a fall of 8% compared with the same period in 2013.

DYNAMIC testing of the first LRV for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is underway at the CNR Changchun plant in China.

THE president of Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO), H E Mohamed Al-Suwaiket, has signed a Riyals 122.9m ($US 32.8m) contract with China Railway Construction Corporation for the renewal of a 78.4km stretch of the Damman – Harad – Riyadh freight line.

CONSTRUCTION is expected to begin in October on a 339km direct line linking Chongqing with Changsha, the capital of China's Hunan province, after China's Ministry of Environmental Protection approved plans for the Yuan 37.6bn ($US 6.1bn) project.

MTR Corporation's acting CEO Mr Lincoln Leong, who started his new role on August 18, has pledged to sharpen the company's focus on serving Hong Kong by introducing extra services and to deliver its new projects in a "safe and timely manner."

THE United States Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has given its approval for the construction of the 21km northern extension of the Minneapolis Blue Line from Target Field to Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has carried out a series of demonstration runs in western Siberia using its new-generation Lastochka (Swallow) EMU, the first appearance of the type east of the Urals.