THE FRENCH region of Rhône-Alpes announced on February 21 that it is forming an association with eight other regions with the aim of taking over the procurement and ownership of rolling stock for regional services from French National Railways (SNCF).

THE Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Path) has opened the first platform at the new World Trade Center (WTC) Path station, a major milestone in the development of the new $US 3.44bn WTC Transport Hub.

GREATER Wellington Regional Council has sold 34 redundant class EM emus built by Ganz-Mavag, Hungary, in 1982, to an unnamed buyer in South Africa, which will refurbish the trains for re-use in Africa.

ANNOUNCING financial and operating results for the first half of its 2013-2014 financial year, Australian rail and port operator Asciano, the parent company of the PN Coal and PN Rail freight businesses, says it will undertake a major restructuring and reintegration of these two divisions from July 1.

THE UZBEK Reconstruction and Development Fund has allocated a $US 280m loan to help finance the construction of a new railway through the Kamchik pass in eastern Uzbekistan, which will allow east-west freight traffic to bypass northern Tajikistan.

CHINA Southern Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation (CSR) formally presented the first of a fleet of ten diesel trains for Iraqi Republic Railways (IRR) to Iraq's ambassador to Beijing Dr Abdul Karim Mostafa and other dignitaries at the CSR Sifang plant in Qingdao on February 17.

THE German Federal Ministry of Transport (BMVIT) has launched a programme of inspections on the German Rail (DB) network with the aim of establishing the true condition of the country's railway infrastructure assets.

MOSCOW Metro has awarded a contract to supply and maintain 832 metro cars to a consortium of Transmashholding (TMH) subsidiaries Metrovagonmash and Transleasholding in a deal worth Roubles 144bn ($US 4.1bn).

ITALIAN open-access operator GTS Rail has awarded two contracts to supply locomotives and wagons for use on intermodal services.

THE municipal governments of Seine-Saint Denis and Val-de-Marne signed the declaration of public utility on February 17 for the 7.7km eastern extension of Paris light rail Line T1 to Val-de-Fontenay.