ANSALDO STS has been awarded a contract by Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), United States, to upgrade a 72.4km section between Speonk and Montauk from dark territory to signalled territory.

TRANSPORT for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has signed an option worth £18m with a consortium of Bombardier and Vossloh Kiepe for the supply of 10 additional Flexity Swift light rail vehicles (LRVs).

BRITISH Columbia transport authority TransLink has awarded Bombardier a five-year contract to operate West Coast Express commuter rail services from Vancouver to Mission City, British Columbia.

GERMANY'S Federal Railway Authority (EBA) has finally approved the fleet of Siemens Velaro-D (class 407) ICEs ordered by German Rail (DB) for use on the German network, two years after they were originally due to enter service.

SINGAPORE's Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsein Loong inaugurated the initial 4.3km section of the city's Downtown Line on December 21.

GOLDLINQ, the consortium building the first light rail line in Gold Coast, Australia, confirmed on December 20 that it had laid the final section of track on the 13km link between Gold Coast University Hospital and Broadbeach.

GERMAN infrastructure manager DB Networks and its Czech counterpart SŽDC announced on December 19 that all planning has been completed for the reinstatement of the short cross-border link between Selb, Germany, and Aš, Czech Republic, which would allow trains to run direct between the Bavarian town of Hof and the Czech city of Cheb.

ILLINOIS Department of Transportation (IDOT) announced on December 19 that it has issued a notice of intent to award Siemens a contract to supply a total of 35 200km/h diesel passenger locomotives for five US states.

MTR, Hong Kong, has selected Alstom in a €41m contract to build, install, test, and commission 11km of double track, which includes a depot and sidings, as well as 25kV ac overhead electrification for the Shatin-Central Link project in Hong Kong.

BRITISH infrastructure manager Network Rail (NR) has selected four preferred suppliers for contracts worth £1.2bn which will cover almost half of its investments in London and the southeast of England during the 2014-19 funding period.