THE president of the board of commissioners of Netherlands Railways (NS), Mr Carel van der Driest, has resigned with immediate effect in the wake of the Limburg regional concessioning scandal.
A taskforce set up to develop a strategy for the future of France's loss-making conventional long-distance trains published its first report at the end of May. Keith Barrow explores the options being put forward to revive the "weak link between TGV and TER."
THE Norrtåg joint venture between the transport authorities in Sweden's four most-northerly counties has selected Tågkompaniet, Sweden, for a nine-year contract to operate regional services in the area.
TRANSPORT ministers from Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland signed a declaration on the implementation of the Rail Baltica project during the TEN-T Days conference held in the Latvian capital Riga on June 22.
BAVARIAN Railway Company (BEG), which is responsible for planning and financing regional and S-Bahn rail services in Bavaria, invites bids by October for a concession to operate the Nuremberg diesel rail network from June 2019 to June 2031. BEG will announce the winner in December.
SWEDISH train leasing company Transitio has awarded Stadler a SKr 3.5bn ($US 429m) contract to supply 33 four-car Kiss double-deck EMUs for regional services radiating from Stockholm.
Russian Railways (RZD) has awarded Siemens a 40-year maintenance contract for the Lastochka regional trains that Siemens started building in 2013. Negotiations began in 2011 when Siemens was originally commissioned to build the new trains, in an order reportedly worth €2bn.
TANZANIA has introduced a 1.5% infrastructure development levy on imports to assist the government with raising $US 14.2bn to finance new rail projects and improve existing lines over the next five years.
FOLLOWING a European tender, Rhine-Ruhr Transport Authority (VRR) announced on June 15 that it has selected National Express and Abellio for three contracts to operate the Rhine-Ruhr Express (RRX) network for up to 15 years from its launch in December 2018.
THE final section of the Australian state of Victoria's $A 3.65bn ($US 2.8bn) Regional Rail Link was officially completed on June 14 paving the way for the introduction of new high-frequency timetable on June 21.
