FLIXMOBILITY, the parent company of German long-distance bus operator FlixBus, announced on March 6 that tickets have gone on sale for its first open-access intercity train services, which will serve 28 stations in five German states.

ITALIAN open-access high-speed operator NTV-Italo and Spanish national train operator Renfe have been granted permission by Britain’s Department for Transport (DfT) to participate in upcoming rail franchise competitions.

ITALY’s infrastructure manager, Italian Rail Network (RFI) has awarded a €67m contract to Astaldi to complete a project to increase capacity in Genoa following its decision to rescind the previous contract after the original consortium exoerienced financial difficulties.

GERMAN Rail (DB) plans to increase spending on maintaining and modernising the existing 33,200km rail network, as well as investment in new projects, by €800m to a record €9.8bn in 2018.

STADLER Rail has been selected for a contract to supply 12 LRVs for the initial phase of the 40.4km interurban light rail network in Bolivia’s fourth largest city Cochabamba.

STATE support for Via Rail’s Fleet Renewal Program was confirmed on February 27 with the publication of the Canadian government’s 2018 budget, which allocates funds to Transport Canada for the procurement of new trains for the Windsor - Quebec City corridor.

THE first completed metro cars for the Jakarta MRT project arrived at the Japanese port of Toyohashi on March 1 in readiness for shippment to Indonesia.

PARIS Transport Authority (RATP) has awarded a contract to Siemens to equip Line 14, which is being extended under the Grand Paris project, with a new communications-based train control system (CBTC).

DYNAMIC testing of Alstom Citadis X05 LRVs has begun on Sydney’s CBD and South East light rail line, which is due to open next year.

THE City of Buenos Aires has launched a tender through metro authority Sbase for a concession to operate the metro network in the Argentinean capital for 12 years from January 2019.