TRANSPORT for London (TfL) and Britain's Department for Transport have announced that Bombardier will be awarded a £1bn contract to supply and maintain 65 trains for the new Crossrail network under construction in London, subject to a 10-day standstill period.

ROTTERDAM Electric Tram (RET) has exercised an option worth €66m with Bombardier for 16 Flexity Swift LRVs for operation on the Hook of Holland, which is being converted from heavy rail to light metro operation.

MOSCOW celebrated the completion of another new stretch of metro line on January 31, when the city's deputy mayor for urban development and construction Mr Marat Khusnullin inaugurated the 3.5km western section of Line 8 from Park Pobedy to Delovoy Tsentr.

THE Indian cabinet announced on January 30 that it has approved plans for the Rs 264bn ($US 4.2bn) second phase of the Bangalore metro network.

BUDAPEST metro Line M4 moved another step closer to the launch of commercial services on January 23, with the launch of the final stage of testing on the initial 7.4km phase of the east-west line from Keleti to Kelenföld.

URBAN Transport Solutions (UTS), a joint venture of CAF and Russia's Sinara Transport Machines unveiled a mock-up of its proposed new-generation metro car for Moscow Metro at the city's All-Russia Exhibition Centre earlier this month.

MUNICH Transport (MVG) and Munich City Authority (SWM) have announced they will invest €335m in the expansion and modernisation of the city's public transport network this year, more than double the amount invested in 2013.

PREQUALIFICATION is underway for contracts to build two new metro lines totalling 44km in the Saudi Arabian holy city of Mecca.

BRAZILIAN president Mrs Dilma Rousseff announced on January 17 that the federal government has reached an agreement with the state of Minas Gerais and the municipality of Belo Horizonte to invest Reais 2bn ($US 853m) in the expansion of the city's metro network.

THE Urban Community of Marseille Provence Métropole has issued a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union for a contract to carry out feasibility studies for a 4.1km eastern extension of metro Line M2 from Dromel-St Marguerite to St Loup-Pagnol.