BILBAO’s third metro line was inaugurated on April 8 by the president of the Basque government, Mr Iñigo Urkull, and the deputy general of the provincial council of Biscay Mr Unai Rementeria.

AMSTERDAM’s North-South Line moved a step closer to opening on April 6 with the first full-speed test run on the 9.8km metro line, which will connect Amsterdam North, Central Station and the city’s historic centre and with the business district in the south of the capital

THE first sod was cut on April 5 for a €3.84bn 10-year project to build a second east-west S-Bahn line under the centre of Munich to relieve congestion on the parallel existing line.

THE European Commission (EC) announced that rail projects in Greece will receive funding from the European Union (EU) cohesion funds, as part of a €1.3bn investment which will allow major projects that started in the 2007-2013 financial period to be completed in the current 2014-2020 period.

CONVENTIONAL train services have been withdrawn between Rotterdam and Hook of Holland to allow the line between Schiedam Central and Hook of Holland to be converted to metro operation and connected to the Rotterdam metro.

STOCKHOLM moved a step closer to a major expansion of its urban rail network on March 30, when the Swedish government concluded negotiations with local authorities on an agreement which links investment in new housing with significant improvements to the public transport system.

THE first two-car metro train being supplied by Hitachi Rail Italy for Miami MetroRail has left the new Medley Plant in Florida after completing tests.

A project to increase capacity on Singapore’s North-South Line (NSL) reached a milestone on March 28, when Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the line’s operator SMRT launched operational trials using the newly-installed Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) system.

THE first Budapest metro Line M3 train to be rebuilt by Metrowagonmash, Russia, returned to passenger service on March 20 following an inaugural run for officials and the media.

BOMBARDIER announced on March 27 that it, along with its local partner Hartasuma, will supply 27 additional Innovia Metro 300 trains for the recently-extended Kelana Jaya LRT Line in Kuala Lumpur.