NOTTINGHAM City Council has selected Tramlink Nottingham as its preferred bidder for the concession to build two new light rail lines totalling 30km and operate the whole network for 23 years.

METRO, the transit operator in Houston, Texas, has awarded Siemens a $US 83 million contract to supply 19 S70 LRVs. The vehicles will be built at Siemens' Sacramento plant in California and deliveries will start in October 2012.

TANZANIA and Uganda have announced plans for a new rail link that will connect a proposed multi-billion dollar deep water port at Mwambani Bay in Tanga, Tanzania, with Musoma on Lake Victoria, onward by train-ferry to Kampala and Juba in Uganda.

ALSTOM has secured orders worth up to Euros 85 million for the supply of light rail vehicles to existing French customers.

YESTERDAY's conference by German Rail's (DB) board of management to announce its 2010 results was overshadowed by revelations that European Commission (EC) inspectors visited DB offices in Berlin, Frankfurt and Mainz on Tuesday. The unannounced visits were part of an investigation into allegations that DB Energy provided traction power to DB Schenker Rail at more favourable rates than to other freight operators.

JR East says it is making steady progress in repairing damage to its network caused by the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11. It expects train services to be "almost back to normal" by the end of this month.

BOMBARDIER today confirmed it has received a $A 269 million ($US 278 million) contract from the government of South Australia to supply and maintain 22 three-car A-City emus for the Adelaide suburban network.

GERMAN RAIL (DB) has ordered the suspension of construction on the Stuttgart 21 project pending the appointment of a new government in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Tendering for further contracts on the controversial project to replace the city's terminus main station with a new underground through station has also been curtailed.

FINNISH Railways (VR) has awarded Transtech, Finland, a Euros 90 million contract to supply 12 IC2 double-deck driving cars and 15 restaurant cars for intercity services. The coaches will be delivered in 2013-2014 and the deal includes options for an additional 13 driving cars and 11 restaurant cars.

 

ITALIAN Railways (FS) has responded to claims by nascent open-access operator NTV that it is trying to jeopardise NTV's plan to launch high-speed services in Italy in competition with FS subsidiary Trenitalia. FS says NTV is attacking it and its infrastructure manager subsidiary, RFI, with statements "devoid of foundation" because of its own difficulties in launching its train services.