TRENSURB, the metro operator in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, has taken delivery of the last of 15 four-car Metropolis EMUs being supplied by the FrotaPoa consortium of Alstom and CAF Brazil under a contract signed in 2012.

BRITAIN's Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has rejected proposals by Arriva subsidiary Great North Western Railway (GNWR) to introduce long-distance open-access services from London to Huddersfield, Leeds, and Blackpool via the West Coast Main Line (WCML).

Low-price long-distance buses are proving stern competition to rail operations across Germany to the extent that Veolia's InterConnex service was withdrawn in December. Christian Schreyer, Veolia Verkehr's CEO, outlined his views on the situation to Kevin Smith.

A CEREMONY was held at Houston's Downtown Transit Center on January 7 to mark the entry into passenger service of Houston MetroRail's new fleet of 39 H3 LRVs, which are being supplied by CAF USA.

MPK Lodz signed a Zlotys 166m ($US 45.8m) contract with Pesa on December 30 for 22 low-floor LRVs, which will be used on the Polish city's 120km metre-gauge tram network.

GORAIL, the only operator of regular passenger services between Estonia and Russia, has announced it will cut its daily Tallinn – St Petersburg train back to just two return services per week next month.

GUANGZHOU Metro Corporation has awarded Thales a contract through its Thales Saic Transportation local joint venture to supply communications-based train control (CBTC) for two new metro lines in the city.

FOLLOWING several years of decline in the wake of the global economic crisis, passenger numbers on Ireland's railway network are finally growing again according to the latest figures from Irish Rail (IE), which show overall ridership increased by 2.5% in 2014 to 37.6 million journeys.

INDIA's first CBTC deployment reached an important milestone on December 30 with the first test run under Automatic Train Operation (ATO) on the 8km eastern section of Hyderabad metro Line 3 between Nagole and Mettuguda.

MEXICO's Federal Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT) confirmed on January 4 that it will issue preliminary bidding documents on January 14 for a revised tender for the contract to build the 210km Mexico City - Queretaro high-speed line.