EAST Japan Railway Company (JR East) and Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) announced journey times on December 3 for high-speed services operating via the Hokkaido Shinkansen, which will open on March 26.

SIMULTANEOUS ceremonies were held in Taiwan on December 1 to officially open three new intermediate stations on the 345km Taipei - Kaohsiung high-speed line.

MR Oleg Belozerov, president of Russian Railways (RZD), was elected chairman of the International Union of Railways (UIC) at the UIC's general assembly on December 1.

THE Thai cabinet approved on December 1 a Baht 1.8 trillion ($US 50.3bn) investment plan comprising 20 transport projects drawn up by the Ministry of Transport and designed to kick-start the country's economy.

INDIAN Railways (IR) signed two contracts with a combined value of around Rs 450bn ($US 6.8bn) with Alstom and GE Transportation on November 30 for a total of 1800 freight locomotives, most of which will be assembled at purpose-built plants in the north-eastern state of Bihar as part of the government's Make in India initiative.

JAPAN International Cooperation Agency (Jica) has granted a $US 2bn loan to fund the Philippines government's portion of the Manila North-South Commuter Rail project.

THE construction of a high-speed line encircling Hainan reached a key milestone on November 26 when the first test train ran on the 344km Western High-Speed Ring Railway, completing the 652km loop around the Chinese island.

RITES, India, has completed a detailed project report for a light metro line in the Indian city of Agra, which will serve key historical sites including Agra Fort, the tomb of Akbar the Great, and the Taj Mahal.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) subsidiary RZD International has signed a contract with Iranian Islamic Republic Railways (RAI) to electrify the existing 495km railway between Garmsar, on the Tehran - Mashhand main line, and Incheboron on the border with Turkmenistan via Sari and Bandar Turkman, 203km of which runs through the Alborz Mountains.