DURING a debate in the Dutch parliament on November 4 finance minister Mr Jeroen Dijsselbloem, revealed that the loss incurred by Netherlands Railways (NS) as a result of the Fyra debacle stands at around €221m and could reach €465m when all costs, including legal fees and the cancellation of the order for AnsaldoBreda V250 trains, are taken into account.

SIEMENS has delivered the first of eight Avenio low-floor LRVs ordered by Munich Transport (MVG) in September 2012 in a deal worth €29m.

ALGIERS Metro Enterprise (EMA) announced on October 30 that it has selected a consortium of Alstom and Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi as preferred bidder for the contract to build the first phase of the light rail network in the city of Setif, 270km east of Algiers.

SCOTTISH transport minister Mr Keith Brown confirmed on November 1 that five companies have been shortlisted to run the new ScotRail franchise, which will commence in 2015, while three are bidding to operate the Caledonian Sleeper service.

A JOINT venture of SP-Technology, Russia and Vossloh Cogifer, in partnership with Russian Railways (RZD), has completed its acquisition of in Novosibirsk Switch Plant, Russia's largest manufacturer of points and crossings.

THE first of 40 HSP46 diesel locomotives being supplied by Wabtec subsidiary MotivePower to Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) for use on commuter services around Boston has arrived at TTCI's test centre in Pueblo, Colorado, for testing.

THOMAS Cook, which published the European Rail Timetable from 1873 until August 2013, has reached agreement with a member of the former editorial team to transfer the publishing rights so that publication of the timetable can restart in February 2014.

MVG, the operator of the tram network in the German city of Mainz, has received planning permission for the 9.2km extension of its network southwest from Main Station to Lerchenberg Hindemithstrasse.

UGANDAN president Mr Yoweri Musveni attended a ceremony in the northern town of Gulu on October 26 to mark the reopening of the Rift Valley Railways (RVR) line from Tororo near the Kenyan border, 18 years after services ceased.

SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) has awarded Harsco Rail a contract worth SFr 93.7m ($US 103m) to supply infrastructure maintenance vehicles for the Gotthard and Ceneri Base Tunnels.