MTR Corporation and FirstGroup announced on June 16 that they will form a joint venture to bid for Britain's South Western franchise after the arrangement was approved by the Department for Transport.
THE first Silkworm low-floor LRV for the initial phase of the light rail network in the Songiang district of Shanghai was unveiled at the Rail+Metro China exhibition in Shanghai on June 14.
A Franco-Indian consortium led by Systra and including Aecom, Egis Rail and Rites has been appointed general consultant for the first phase of the Nagpur metro.
AUSTRIAN Federal Railways (ÖBB) signed an agreement with the City of Vienna and the Austrian Ministry of Transport on June 14 to invest €450m to improve and expand the Vienna S-Bahn network.
CHEMNITZ Transport (CVAG) signed a contract with Škoda Transportation on June 14 for 14 standard-gauge ForCity low-floor LRVs, which will replace the German city's ageing fleet of Tatra trams.
THE new West Midlands Combined Authority centred on Birmingham, Britain, is drawing up plans through Transport for West Midlands, which comes into force this month, to expand the rail network under a £4bn 10-year transport investment plan.
ŠKODA Transportation, Czech Republic, is to set up a subsidiary company in the United States with a view to selling light rail vehicles and trains in North America.
THE Canadian province of Ontario is to provide $C 205m ($US 160m) to help advance work for the Yonge North subway extension and the proposed Relief Line which is designed to help relieve congestion on Toronto Transit Commission's (TTC) Yonge Line.
EAST Japan Railway Company (JR East) has unveiled a Yen 250bn ($US 2.4bn) project to rebuild three stations in central Tokyo in preparation for the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
THE first of seven 730ML DMUs being supplied by Pesa, Poland, to Lithuanian Railways (LG) entered service on the 376km Vilnius - Klaipeda route on June 9.
