VOSSLOH has completed its financial restructuring by concluding a new €150m five-year syndicated loan in the form of a revolving credit. The loan has two options to extend the final maturity by one year each and can be increased if necessary by up €150m.

THE President of Italy’s Puglia region, Mr Michele Emiliano, has announced that a 189km section of South East Railway (FSE) in the Salento area will be electrified.

KEOLIS commenced operation of the 15-year Teutoburger-Wald-Network (TWN) concession in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, on December 10.

WEST Midlands Trains, a joint venture of Abellio, JR East and Mitsui, has finalised two orders worth £680m for 107 new trains with Bombardier and CAF for the new West Midlands franchise, which started on December 10.

A new SFr 87m ($US 87.7m) tram link between the Swiss city of Basle and the French town of St Louis in Alsace was officially opened on December 9 after two years of construction, reviving a cross-border tram service which closed around 60 years ago.

HELSINKI Regional Transport (HSL) is claiming a world first with the launch of an open retail platform which enables anyone anywhere to purchase tickets for retail sale.

THE first four out of 17 Evo Pendolino trains being supplied by Alstom to Italy’s open-access high-speed operator NTV entered service on December 7 between Rome and Venice.

KEOLIS Nederland commenced operation of its second rail concession in the Netherlands on December 11 when it took over an 81km network in the province of Overijssel.

HYUNDAI-Rotem, Korea, has received a Won 156.5bn ($US 143m) contract to supply 120 cars for operation on the new Line M7 of the Istanbul metro.

THE first five 250km/h ICE4 series-production trains which Siemens is supplying to German Rail (DB) entered regular passenger service on December 10 on the Hamburg - Munich and Hamburg - Frankfurt - Stuttgart main lines.