CIVIL works have begun on the first phase of the third light metro line in Mexico's second-largest city Guadalajara.

DYNAMIC testing of the first LRV for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is underway at the CNR Changchun plant in China.

CONSTRUCTION is expected to begin in October on a 339km direct line linking Chongqing with Changsha, the capital of China's Hunan province, after China's Ministry of Environmental Protection approved plans for the Yuan 37.6bn ($US 6.1bn) project.

THE FIRST of 27 six-car trains for Chengdu metro Line 4 was presented to Mr Yu Ningyue, chairman of Chengdu Metro Corporation at the CNR Changchun plant on August 21.

MTR Corporation's acting CEO Mr Lincoln Leong, who started his new role on August 18, has pledged to sharpen the company's focus on serving Hong Kong by introducing extra services and to deliver its new projects in a "safe and timely manner."

THE United States Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has given its approval for the construction of the 21km northern extension of the Minneapolis Blue Line from Target Field to Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

THREE German public transport authorities have published a joint tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union for the Central Saxony Electric Network II (EMS II) concession, which covers the operation of around 5.7 million train-km per year on three routes.

CHINA Railway Group launched tenders through its procurement subsidiary China Rail Investment Corporation on August 22 for two contracts to supply a total of 232 high-speed trains.

ARGENTINA's world-famous Tren de las Nubes (Train of the Clouds) has ceased operating and concessionaire Ecotren has been stripped of its contract following a derailment in a remote area of the Andes.

THE FIRST of six 200km/h Flirt EMUs for Swedish open-access operator MTR Express left the Stadler Rail plant in Bussnang, Switzerland, on August 21 bound initially for the company's train commissioning centre in nearby Erlen.