BRITAIN's Department for Transport will have to reduce resource spending by 21% and capital expenditure by 11% in real terms over the next four years as a result of the government's decision to cut public spending by an average of 19% to reduce its massive budget deficit.

PAULISTA Metropolitan Trains Company (CPTM) has placed a Euros 80 million contract with Alstom for nine eight-car emus to operate on the São Paulo suburban rail network. The Metropolis trains will be built in Brazil and delivery will be completed by mid-2012.

GERMAN RAIL (DB) will launch direct services from London to Cologne, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam in 2013, CEO Dr Rüdiger Grube announced today during the first visit of an ICE3 high-speed train to London St Pancras International station. DB will be the first new passenger operator to run services through the Channel Tunnel since it opened in 1994 marking the end of Eurostar's monopoly on the route.

THE CEO of Eurotunnel, Mr Jacques Gounon, says the evacuation trials conducted in the Channel Tunnel last weekend with two ICE trains belonging to German Rail (DB) "were more successful than we expected." Gounon says two trials to evacuate 300 people from the trains were conducted. The more complicated evacuation involving people moving from one train to the other was completed in 20 minutes, while what he describes as the "more obvious way to evacuate a train" through the doors to the cross passages took just 15 minutes. The requirement is to evacuate a train within 90 minutes.

THE final metre of rock was broken through this afternoon on the eastern bore of the 57km Gotthard base tunnel beneath the Swiss Alps, making it the world's longest railway tunnel. The Swiss also claim it is the deepest railway tunnel with a rock overburden of 2500m.

UNION RAILWAY Company (URC) is inviting expressions of interest for contracts to supply track materials for the United Arab Emirates' first railway. Four contracts, covering ballast, rail, switches and crossings, and sleepers, are being let for the Shah Habshan Railway, a 264km line from the Gulf Coast Port of Ruwais to the Shah sour gas field.

A GERMAN RAIL (DB) ICE high-speed train entered the Channel Tunnel today heralding the start of certification for operation to London. DB is seeking approval of the eight-car Class 406 train from the Channel Tunnel Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) in preparation for the launch of through services between London and destinations in Germany in 2013.

LUXEMBOURG Railways (CFL) has awarded Stadler Pankow a Euros 60 million contract to supply eight Kiss double-deck emus, with an option for up to 31 additional trains. The dual-system trains will be delivered in 2013 and will be equipped for 25kV and 15kV ac electrification systems, allowing them to operate cross-border services between Luxembourg and Trier in Germany.

BTS GROUP, the operator of Bangkok's SkyTrain, has agreed a Baht 2 billion ($US 65.1 million) deal with Siemens to supply an additional coach for each of its existing 35 three-car trains.

A LAUNCH event for ProtectRail, a European Commission-funded programme that aims to develop an integrated system intended to improve European railway security through better protection of trains and railways, was hosted by the International Union of Railways (UIC) this week. Representatives from 29 UIC partners from 12 countries gathered for the conference at the UIC's headquarters in Paris.