DUTCH secretary of state for infrastructure Mrs Wilma Mansveld signed 10-year concession agreements on December 15 with Netherlands Railways (NS) for the operation of the so-called core network and with ProRail for the management of the country's mainline rail infrastructure.
REGIONAL rail links between Austria and Italy were stepped up significantly on December 14 with the launch of hourly services on the Fortezza - San Candido – Lienz corridor as part of the Euregio initiative between the Austrian province of Tyrol and the Italian autonomous region of South Tyrol.
THE Bavarian Railway Authority (BEG) has signed a direct award contract with DB Regio subsidiary Südostbayernbahn for the operation of regional services on the so-called Mühldorf Star network, which encompasses non-electrified lines in southeastern Bavaria from December 2015.
NEW train schedules were launched across Europe on December 14, and according to the December issue of the European Rail Timetable, the improvements outnumber the number of services being withdrawn.
POLISH long-distance operator PKP Intercity launched its new EIC Premium services on December 14, marking the entry into passenger service of its Alstom ED250 Pendolino EMUs.
UKRANIAN Railways (UZ) launched a new 160km/h daily service on December 12 from Kiev to Krivoy Rog, a city with a population of 700,000 in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
DUTCH secretary of state for infrastructure Mrs Wilma Mansveld has announced that the government will grant €200m to South Holland to extend the R-Net network of high-quality public transport services around the Randstad conurbation.
ITALY's autonomous province of South Tyrol has extended its agreement with Trenitalia to provide regional services up to 2024 in a €36m per year contract.
A parliamentary select committee in Uganda has launched a probe into the award of an $US 8bn contract for the 250km single-track Kampala - Malaba standard-gauge railway to China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC).
LITHUANIAN Railways (LG) has placed an order with Škoda Vagonka for an additional three class 575 1520mm-gauge double-deck City Elefant EMUs for €27.2m.
