BUDAPEST Transport Company (BKV) may be forced to restart tendering for a contract worth more than €200m to refurbish 37 ageing six-car trains used on Budapest metro Line 3 after one of the bidders raised objections to how the procurement was handled.

THE Panamanian cabinet granted Panama Metro approval on July 21 to proceed with the acquisition of 70 additional metro cars to increase capacity on Panama City metro Line 1.

DUTCH infrastructure manager Prorail is to reduce track access charges for lightweight multiple units following a ruling by the Consumer and Markets Authority (ACM) that the current level of pricing is excessive and violates the Dutch Railway Act.

CATALAN Government Railways (FGC) inaugurated a 4km extension of Barcelona's standard-gauge suburban Line S1 to Terrassa on July 28.

GERMAN Rail (DB) has launched a major restructuring of its organisation and a reduction in its management team in the wake of an 18.2% drop in Ebit for the first half of 2015, and a 39% fall in after-tax profit from €642m to €391m.

POLISH State Railways (PKP) says it will allocate funds raised from the privatisation of its power subsidiary PKP Energy towards the purchase of 10 additional Pesa ED161 Dart long-distance EMUs for PKP Intercity.

NEW YORK Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has given preliminary approval for two contracts totalling $US 205.8m for the first phase of the Queens Boulevard Line (QBL) CBTC rollout.
The Siemens contract is worth $US 156.2m, while the total value of the Thales contract is $US 49.6m.

THE Spanish Ministry of Public Works and Transport has launched construction of a new branch designed to improve connectivity between El Prat airport and the Barcelona suburban network.

A new structure for Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC) came into effect on July 27, when the Ministry of Transport and Communications signed two agreements with the company to terminate the original build-operate-transfer concession for the Taipei - Kaohsiung high-speed line.

CROSSLINX Transit Solutions, the consortium selected in June by Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario to finance, build, and maintain Toronto's Eglinton Crosstown light rail line has reached financial close on the $C 5.3bn ($US 4.3bn) project.