MALAYSIA's Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) is to carry out a feasibility study into the extension of the 57km Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Express Rail Link (ERL) to Seremban and Malacca.

A CEREMONY was held at Toyama station on May 24 to mark the completion of tracklaying on the 228km Nagano – Kanazawa section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen, with around 60 dignitaries tightening bolts on the final section of rail.

THE CHINESE city of Wuhan inaugurated the latest addition to its metro network on May 28, when commercial services began running on the 5.7km northern extension of Line 1 from Dijiao to Hankou North.

THE massive electoral win of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in India's recent general election has accelerated plans to build the country's first high-speed line.

IRANIAN Islamic Republic Railways (RAI) says it is seeking finance from China for the electrification of the 926km Tehran – Mashhad line.

INDONESIA's directorate general of railways has commenced work to construct a second track on 26km of the 42km Medan - Aras Kabu - Kuala Namu International Airport line in northern Sumatra following a groundbreaking ceremony on May 22.

ALSTOM has won a €300m contract from Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) for 50 type KZ8A 8.8MW electric locomotives. The contract was signed in Baku in the presence of the president of Azerbaijan Mr Ilham Aliyev and the French president Mr François Hollande.

CHINA Railway Investment Corporation (CRIC) has published tenders for contracts to supply more than 1000 electric locomotives to China Railway Corporation (CRC).

SINGAPORE's Land Transport Authority (LTA) has awarded contracts worth a total of $S 1.15bn ($US 915.8m) for the Thomson and Eastern Region metro projects, including a $S 159m contract to GE Transportation for a fully automated and driverless communications-based train control (CBTC) system.

CONSTRUCTION workers are celebrating connecting the bores of the 16.3km tunnel through the Qilian Mountains in northwest China which is the final part of the project to build the 1776km Lanxin railway from Lanzhou, Gansu province, to Urumqi in Xinjiang.