NICE Côte d'Azur Metropolis opened the 7km T2 Cadam - Magnan tram line on June 30, with Alstom inaugurating its first new-generation Citadis X05, equipped with a new SRS charging system, at the opening ceremony.
UNITED States transportation secretary Mrs Elaine Chao attended a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the future Union Square station in Somerville, Massachusetts, on June 25 to mark the official start of construction on the extension of Boston’s light rail Green Line.
THE city of Gatineau, Quebec, has unveiled proposals for a 26km light rail network which, according to its promoters, will help encourage movement of the population in the west of the city to downtown Gatineau and Ottawa, Ontario.
SWITZERLAND’s Lugano Railways (FLP) has awarded Stadler a SFr 47m ($US 47.3m) contract to supply nine low-floor tram-trains as part of a major expansion of its Lugano - Ponte Tresa line services to cope with a 70% increase in ridership over the past 10 years to 2.5 million passengers a year.
ŠKODA Transportation announced on June 20 that it has won a tender for a contract to supply 80 low-floor LRVs to Rhine Neckar Transport (RNV) for use on tram lines in and around Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg.
HYUNDAI Rotem says it has developed a bogie which enables low-floor LRVs to operate on tracks with a 15m curve radius, purportedly the tightest in the world.
FRANKFURT Transport (VGF) has signed a contract worth around €100m with Alstom for the supply of 38 Citadis trams with special adaptations for the German market, including an option for 15 additional vehicles.
IRELAND’S Public Service Obligation (PSO) services saw an increase in both funding and passenger numbers last year, the National Transport Authority’s (NTA) statistical bulletin shows, with rail accounting for a third of passenger journeys.
HELSINKI City Transport (HKL) has exercised an option to order another 10 ForCity Smart Artic trams from Transtech Oy, a subsidiary of Škoda Transportation, in addition to the 60 it had previously ordered.
SPORVEIEN, which operates a six-line tram network in the Norwegian capital Oslo, has awarded a contract worth in excess of €200m to CAF for a fleet of 87 LRVs with an option for another 60 vehicles.
