THE government of the German state of North Rhine Westphalia has signed three financing and implementation agreements with Rhineland Transport Authority (NVR) and German Rail (DB) for the long-planned extension of Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn Line S13 from Troisdorf to Bonn Oberkassel.
TRENITALIA launched the first high-speed services to Rome Leonardo da Vinci airport on December 14, when selected Frecciargento services were extended to serve the airport station at Fiumicino.
NEW train schedules were launched across Europe on December 14, and according to the December issue of the European Rail Timetable, the improvements outnumber the number of services being withdrawn.
BASLE Transport Authority (BVB) celebrated the opening of the city's first light rail link into Germany on December 14 with a day of free rides on the northern extension of Line 8 from Kleinhüningen to Weil-am-Rhein in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
POLISH long-distance operator PKP Intercity launched its new EIC Premium services on December 14, marking the entry into passenger service of its Alstom ED250 Pendolino EMUs.
UKRANIAN Railways (UZ) launched a new 160km/h daily service on December 12 from Kiev to Krivoy Rog, a city with a population of 700,000 in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
THE extension of the Salzburg Local Railway (SLB) from Trimmelkam to Ostermeithing was inaugurated on December 12 by the deputy governor of Upper Austria Mr Reinhold Entholzer and Salzburg provincial minister for transport and infrastructure Mr Hans Mayr.
THE Port Authority of New York & New Jersey has awarded a three-year, $US 6m contract to HNTB to carry out studies on the proposed Port Authority Trans-Hudson (Path) metro extension from Newark Penn Station to Newark Liberty International Airport.
AN update on plans to establish regular-interval all-day services on commuter rail lines in southern Ontario was presented at the meeting of Toronto and Hamilton regional transport authority Metrolinx board of directors on December 11.
DUTCH secretary of state for infrastructure Mrs Wilma Mansveld has announced that the government will grant €200m to South Holland to extend the R-Net network of high-quality public transport services around the Randstad conurbation.
