The municipality of São José dos Campos, northeast of São Paulo, announced on November 24 that it is cancelling the construction of its proposed 15km light rail line in favour of a bus rapid transit (BRT) system.
THE first of 468 new-generation Azur metro cars being built by a consortium of Bombardier and Alstom for Montreal public transport company STM was formally presented to representatives of the government of Quebec and the City of Montreal at Bombardier's La Pocatière plant in Quebec on November 25.
CONSTRUCTION of a two-line light rail network in the French city of Avignon moved a step closer on November 23, when the €250m project was granted public utility status.
GERMAN Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Regio has reached an agreement with Poland's Regional Railways (PR) to continue operating the cross-border RE 100 Dresden Wroclaw Express service.
THE board of Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) announced on November 21 it has exercised an option worth $US 638.9m for an additional 365 metro cars from Bombardier as part of its "fleet of the future" programme, taking the total number of vehicles on order to 775.
SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) has agreed to sell all of its shares in the Voralpen Express joint venture to its partner South Eastern Railway (SOB) in a deal worth around SFr 4.2m ($US 4.6m).
BRITISH Columbia transport authority TransLink has begun returning to service the first of 114 Vancouver Skytrain Mark 1 light metro vehicles to be refurbished under a $C 37.9m ($US 35.2m) overhaul programme, which is expected to extend the life of fleet by 15 years.
THE Mayor of London Mr Boris Johnson and Mr Mike Brown, London Underground (LU) managing director announced on November 21 that 24-hour operation will be introduced at weekends on five Underground lines from 2015.
MINNEAPOLIS City Council's Transportation and Public Works Committee approved the further development of two tram projects at a meeting on November 19, 2013.
THE Queensland state government has announced that work will start in 2015 on a $A 5bn ($US 4.8bn) project to build a double-deck tunnel under the centre of Brisbane for use by buses and trains.
