THE city of Milan has signed a Euros 872 million contract with the Metro 5 consortium to build a 7km extension of Line 5 from Garibaldi to the San Siro stadium.

WARSAW Metro has selected a consortium of Siemens and Newag, Poland, in a Euros 272 million deal to supply 35 six-car Inspiro metro trains for operation on its existing 23km Line 1 and the currently under-construction Line 2. Delivery of the trains will commence in autumn 2012 with 15 trains set to be operated on the north-south Line 1 and 20 on the east-west Line 2 after it opens in 2013.

NEDTRAIN, which is responsible for service and maintenance of the Dutch railway fleet, has selected Alstom in a Euros 36 million contract to design and manufacture 161 IGBT traction systems to equip 81 regional trains.

RIDERSHIP on Britain's passenger network increased by 6.9% in 2010 with 1.32 billion journeys made, according to figures released today by the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc). The figures show that the railways carried more passengers than at any peacetime year since the 1920s with a record 33.3 billion miles travelled by train. Ridership was also up by 37% compared with 2000.

While the current situation and outlook for national rail traffic is diverse, it is safe to say that global rail traffic as a whole is rapidly recovering from the economic crisis, says Niklas Schüller, associate consultant with SCI Verkehr, Germany.

 

ALSTOM has won a contract with Ile de France Transport Authority (STIF) and Paris Transport Authority (RATP) to supply Citadis LRVs to operate on two currently under-construction light rail lines.

YAPI MERKEZI, the Turkish contractor building the Ankara - Konya high-speed line, has selected Invensys Rail Dimetronic to install the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) Level 2 on the 212km line, the first deployment of this technology on the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) network.

BRITISH open access passenger operator Wrexham & Shropshire (W&S) today announced it will cease operations on Friday with the withdrawal of all services on its route from London Marylebone to Shrewsbury and Wrexham.

BERN-Solothurn Regional Traffic (RBS), Switzerland, has exercised an option for eight NExT emus worth SFr 64 million ($US 66.4 million) with Stadler. The additional trains will allow RBS to increase capacity on the Bern - Soloturn route from 2013. The first six NExT low-floor emus entered service with RBS in 2009.

A DETAILED electrification study by Toronto transit agency Metrolinx has recommended wiring at least two Go Transit commuter lines, together with the new Pearson International Airport Rail Link (ARL).