THE Province of Ontario has appointed former Canadian federal transport minister Mr David Collenette as chair of the Ontario High Speed Rail Planning Advisory board, which will oversee the development of plans for a high-speed line linking Toronto with Windsor.

GREENRAIL, Italy, has signed the first agreement for the industrialisation and marketing of its range of recycled railway sleepers in the United States.

A consortium of Team Group, Thailand, and Egis, France, has been appointed project consultant for the Baht 53.5bn ($US 1.7bn) Bangkok Pink Line monorail public-private partnership (PPP) project.

THE first Alstom Citadis X05 low-floor LRV for the second light rail line in Nice was unveiled to the media by the city’s mayor Mr Christian Estrosi at Charles Ginésy Maintenance Centre on February 9.

THE Lithuanian government has approved a proposal by the Ministry of Transport and Communications to reorganise Lithuanian Railways (LG), bringing the organisation’s structure into line with the provisions of the European Union’s Fourth Railway Package.

THE first of seven Hitachi Rail Italy Sirio LRVs for Florence light rail Line T3 arrived in the Tuscan capital on February 9.

BRITAIN’s minister of state with the Department of Transport (DfT), Mr Jo Johnson, has called for the withdrawal of diesel-only trains by 2040 and the decarbonisation of the railway.

THE City of Warsaw has launched tenders for a contract to construct a 3.9km underground extension of metro Line M2 from Trocka to Bródno in the northeastern district of Targówek.

LIGHT Rail Manila Corporation has awarded a contract to Voith, Germany, to replace the traction and auxiliary inverters and the vehicle control systems on 24 LRVs with an option for a further three vehicles.