Utah Transit Agency (UTA) has a track record of delivering transit projects ahead of schedule and under budget. Michael Allegra, UTA's recently-retired president and CEO, reveals the secrets of UTA's success and its future ambitions in an exclusive interview with Kevin Smith.

UKRAINIAN prime minister Mr Arseniy Yatsenyuk officially launched a new regional express service on the 267km Lvov - Ivano-Frankivsk - Chernivtsi route on October 6, which uses Ukrainian Railways' (UZ) prototype DPKr2 DMU.

KEOLIS subsidiary Eurobahn is set to continue to operate Germany's Hellweg regional network beyond the expiry of its current contract in 2018 after winning a new 12-year contract.

REPRESENTATIVES of Riyadh's Fast Consortium, Arriyadh Development Authority, and residents of the district of Salah Al-Din attended a ceremony at the site of the future Salah Al-Din station on October 4 to witness the first tunnel boring machine (TBM) breakthrough on Riyadh metro Line 5 (Green Line).

URUMQI Urban Rail Group has awarded CRRC Corporation subsidiary Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive a contract to supply 27 six trains for the Chinese city's first metro line.

INDONESIA's National Development Planning Ministry says an offer has been accepted from a Chinese consortium to build a new 140km railway between Jakarta and Bandung after Japanese bidders were forced to concede that they could not meet Indonesia's demands for no-strings finance for the $US 5bn project.

A STUDY commissioned by Dutch infrastructure manager Prorail has found that the quality of concrete used on some parts of the HSL South high-speed line between Amsterdam and the Belgian border may be of inferior quality and the technical life of some structures could be considerably shorter than originally envisaged.

LUCKNOW Metro Rail Corporation has awarded Alstom a contract worth around €150m to supply rolling stock and signalling for the Indian city's first metro line.

MINNEAPOLIS St Paul Metropolitan Council Environmental Services has published a tender notice for a contract to supply 27 low-floor LRVs with an option for 50 more, even though Metro Transit still has options remaining on an existing contract with Siemens.

NEW trains were introduced on Rome's Leonardo Express airport rail link on October 2, whe Italy's transport minister Mr Graziano Delrio, Lazio regional president Mr Nicola Zingaretti and Italian State Railways (FS) CEO Mr Michele Mario Elia offically launched a dedicated fleet of eight Alstom Jazz EMUs on the service between Rome Termini and Fiumicino Airport.