ITALIAN State Railways (FS) might be asked by the Italian government to become a shareholder in the country's national airline, Alitalia, to help recapitalise it and to take advantage of the synergies between rail and air.

THE first of 70 Coradia Meridian emus for Trenitalia is nearing completion at Alstom's Savigliano plant in northern Italy and is due to be handed over to Trenitalia by the end of October.

MR Giuseppe Sciarrone, CEO of Italian open-access high-speed operator Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), issued his resignation on October 2. The company's steering committee has appointed its president Mr Antonello Perricone as his replacement.

THE CEO of Italian State Railways (FS) Mr Mauro Moretti officiated at a ceremony at Milan Central station yesterday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Pendolino tilting trains in Italy.

BRITAIN's Department for Transport (DfT) has awarded incumbent First Group a 23-month contract to continue operating the Great Western franchise, which encompasses services from London Paddington to south Wales and the south west of England, until September 2015.

LINE testing of Edinburgh's long-delayed and over budget light rail line will be extended to the 2.1km section from Gogarburn station to Edinburgh Park on October 8, Edinburgh City Council has confirmed, adding that passenger services on the 13.5km line are due to begin in May 2014.

ANSALDOBREDA has filed a lawsuit in a court in Utrecht, Netherlands, against NS Financial Services and Netherlands Railways (NS) for failing to fulfil their obligations under the contract for the 16 V250 high-speed trains which AnsaldoBreda supplied for the now-aborted Amsterdam - Brussels Fyra service.

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) has ordered 34 Coradia Liner trains from Alstom in a contract worth around €350m.

A joint venture is to be established between Zerz, a Ukrainian state-owned electric locomotive maintenance and repair company, and Skoda, Czech Republic, to build dual-voltage passenger locomotives for Ukrainian Railways (UZ).

RENNES Métropole has awarded a €178m turnkey contract to Siemens to for the construction of the French city's second fully-automatic light metro line. This follows a contract for the first phase of studies which was placed in 2010.