At the start of this year new 10-year concessions came into effect for infrastructure management and operation of passenger services on most of the Dutch railway network. Quintus Vosman considers whether lessons have been learned from the previous concession, and how the new agreements will shape the operation of the network over the next decade.

THE board of directors of Italian State Railways (FS) approved a proposal on February 25 to issue one or more loan stocks through a Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) on the Dublin stock exchange.

SPAIN's Council of Ministers has authorised the Ministry of Development to approve a tender by Adif High Speed worth €266m for the construction of three sections of the Basque Y high-speed network linking Vitoria, Bilbao and San Sebastián with Irun on the French border.

THE British Treasury has sold the government's 40% stake high-speed train operator Eurostar for £585.1m to Patina Rail, a Canadian-British consortium of fund managers. Eurostar has also agreed to redeem the government's £172m preference share once the sale has been finalised which will increase the total value of the sale to £757.1m.

SWEDISH infrastructure manager Trafikverket has completed a project to reactivate the cross-border section of the Meråker Line from Trondheim, Norway to Storlien in Sweden which has been closed for more than a year due to movements in an embankment on the Swedish side of the border.

THE board of Italian open-access high-speed operator NTV appointed Mr Flavio Cattaneo as its new CEO on February 26, and also approved new strategic and business plans for the company.

BRITAIN's Rolling Stock Strategy Steering Group (RSSSG) chaired by Mr Richard Brown has published its third annual update of its passenger rolling stock strategy for the next 30 years which calls for the national fleet to be expanded by between 52% and 99% to meet growing demand.

FRENCH rail regulator Araf and Britain's Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) are set to take over responsibility for monitoring conditions of access and infrastructure charges for the Channel Tunnel from the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC), under an agreement which will be signed later this month.

THE DUTCH province of Limburg is seeking financial support from the European Union to develop better cross-border train services to Germany and Belgium.

CZECH Railways (CD) has awarded Škoda Transportation contracts totalling Koruna 1.1bn ($US 45m) to modernise 93 locomotive-hauled coaches for Prague – Berlin – Hamburg EuroCity services.