SHANGHAI Shentong Metro Group announced on July 18 that it has taken delivery of the city’s 5000th metro car.

THE Berlin S-Bahn and German Rail (DB) launched the €30m S-Bahn Plus quality programme on July 18 to improve punctuality, quality and service in Berlin and Brandenburg state.

THE state government of South Australia and the Australian government have formalised an agreement that will see $A 220m ($US 163.3m) of federal funding provided towards full electrification of the 78km line linking Adelaide and the outer suburb of Gawler.

A new north-south metro line and an enhanced commuter network for Dublin are key elements of the Irish government’s €10bn capital investment plan for infrastructure up to 2027. Kevin Smith met Anne Graham, CEO of the National Transport Authority, in Dublin to discuss which projects are set to benefit.

GERMAN Rail (DB), Siemens and the city of Hamburg have signed an agreement to develop a fully automated S-Bahn line in Hamburg by 2021, in time for the World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in October 2021.

A 6.5km extension to Madrid Metro Line 11 from Plaza Elíptica north to Conde de Casal on Line 6, announced by the city's governing council on June 3, is set to expand the 292km network to more than 300km for the first time.

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) has released details of its plans to more than triple the size of Gare du Nord, Paris’ busiest station, by 2023 in time for the Olympic Games which will be staged in the French capital in 2024.

THE Brazilian state of Ceará has awarded Spanish company Sacyr Engineering and Infrastructure and Brazilian construction company Ferrera Guedes a contract worth Reais 1.47bn ($US 382m) to build Phase 1 of the Eastern Line of the Fortaleza Metro over four years.

TEST operations have begun on the Hanoi metro Line 2A between Cat Linh and Ha Dong in the Vietnam capital, with the line connected to the national power grid at the beginning of July.