THE Infrastructure Committee of the Philippines National Economic Development Authority (Neda) has approved the adoption of standard gauge for all future railway projects in the country.

TRIAL operation began on the initial phase of Tianjin’s metro Line 6 on August 6, five years after the start of construction on the north-south line.

PRINCESS Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand opened Bangkok’s Mass Rapid Transit Purple Line on August 6 with an inaugural trip on the 23.5km line from Tao Poon to Khlong Bang Phai station in the district of Bang Yai, where the opening ceremony took place.

KOREA’s national train operator Korail was awarded a contract on August 1 to provide consultancy services for the design of Manila metro Line MRT-7 in cooperation with San Miguel Holdings subsidiary Universal LRT, which is implementing the project.

CRRC Zhuzhou unveiled what is claimed to be China’s first domestically-developed supercapacitor-powered light rail vehicle at its plant in Hunan province on August 1.

MTR Corporation has awarded CRRC Nanjing Puzhen a $HK 745m ($US 96m) contract to supply 40 LRVs to replace the 30 Phase 2 LRVs used on the Tuen Mon - Yuen Long light rail network in the Northwestern New Territories, and expand capacity on the 36.2km standard-gauge system.

THE Korean city of Incheon opened its second metro line on July 30, almost 17 years after the opening of Line 1.

CHENGDU added a northeast - southwest line to its metro network on July 31 with the start of trial operation on the initial phase of Line 3 (Magenta Line) from Chengdu Junqu General Hospital to Taipingyuan.

REPORTING to Russia’s president Mr Vladimir Putin, the president of Russian Railways (RZD) Mr Oleg Belozerov, revealed that RZD broke even during in the first half of 2016.

EVRAZ has almost completed development of a new rail for use on the planned Moscow - Kazan high-speed line which is intended to have a maximum speed of 400km/h.