A full-size mock-up of the forthcoming Alstom Metropolis train for Guadalajara metro Line 3 was unveiled in the city’s northern district of Zapopan on August 9 by Mr Rodolfo Guadalajara Gutiérrez, managing director of metro operator Siteur, and the governor of the Mexican state of Jalisco Mr Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz.

THE governor of the Brazilian state of São Paulo, Mr Geraldo Alckmin, says he wants to privatise six of the nine existing or planned metro and monorail lines serving the city of São Paulo, which represents about 60% of the network.

CUBAN import agency Tradex signed a contract with Sinara Transport Machines, Russia, on July 23 for 75 diesel-hydraulic locomotives for Cuban Union Railways (UFC).

BRAZIL’s National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) has awarded two consortia contracts to carry out feasibility studies for a commuter rail link running south from the capital Brasilia to Luziânia in the state of Goiás.

URUGUAY’s Ministry of Transport and public works has awarded Comsa, Spain, with a €94m contract to modernise the 180km between Piedra Sola -Salto Grande line.

LIMA metro Line 1 is set to benefit from a significant increase in capacity under an addendum to the concession contract between the Peruvian government and the GyM-Ferrovias consortium, which was signed on July 11 by Peru’s minister of communications and transport Mr José Gallardo Ku and consortium chairman Mr Gonzalo Ferraro.

SPAIN's Official Credit Institute (ICO), representing the government of Spain and the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Ecuador has signed a funding agreement with CAF financing rolling stock, auxiliary vehicles, workshop tools and equipment, and parts for Quito's first metro line.

AFTER several false starts, Argentina's Ministry of Transport confirmed on July 4 that work on a project to replace the surface alignment of the Sarmiento Line in Buenos Aires with a 22.4km tunnel will resume in September.

AFTER being out of action for over four years, Peru's only international railway, which connects the southern town of Tacna with Arica in northern Chile, restarted operations on June 1.

THE government of Cuba signed a €190m loan agreement with the Export Insurance Agency of Russia (Exiar) during last-week's St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which will be used by Cuban Union Railways (UFC) to finance the modernisation of its locomotive fleet.