MALAYSIAN prime minister Mr Najib Razak visited Semantan MRT station west of Kuala Lumpur on September 1 for his first ride on the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit Sungai Buloh - Kajang Line.
ALSTOM has been awarded a €125m contract by Rideau Transit Maintenance General Partnership, a consortium of SNC Lavalin O&M, ACS and EllisDon, to maintain Ottawa’s 12.5km light rail Confederation Line, which opens in 2018.
FINLAND’s VR Group turned an operating loss of €2.6m in the first half of 2015 into a profit of €1.2m for the first half of 2016 thanks to an increase in passenger and freight rail traffic.
THE Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport of the Nigerian state of Kano has provisionally awarded a $US 1.86bn contract to two subsidiaries of China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) to build a light metro network in Nigeria’s second largest city Kano.
LUXURY train operator Belmond launched Ireland’s first luxury train on August 30, when the Grand Hibernian departed from Dublin Heuston station carrying 40 guests on the first leg of a six-day tour of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
TOKYO Metro plans to conduct a trial this autumn to transport parcels on part of the metro network in cooperation with freight forwarders Yamato Transport, Japan Post, and Sagawa Express.
STATE Railway of Thailand (SRT) launched its first new passenger vehicles for more than 20 years on August 29, when a rake of inter-city coaches supplied by CRRC Corporation, China, made an inaugural run from Bangkok Hua Lamphong to Nakhon Pathom.
THE remaining two shortlisted bidders for the West Midlands passenger rail franchise have been invited by the Department of Transport (DfT) to submit bids by November 29 for the new franchise which starts in October 2017.
THE mayor of San Francisco Mr Ed Lee visited Siemens’ Sacramento plant on August 29 to view the first of 215 S200 SF LRVs for San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).
ISRAEL’s minister of transport Mr Yisrael Katz took an inaugural trip on August 29 on the 60km Jezreel Valley line linking Haifa and Beit Shee’an ahead of the start of scheduled services on October 16.
