The saga of Danish State Railways' heavily-delayed AnsaldoBreda IC4 DMUs took another turn last month with the publication of an independent report on the measures required for full fleet deployment. Keith Barrow looks at the report's main findings.

THE Hungarian government has acquired a 64.9% stake in the carriage works at Dunakeszi near Budapest from Bombardier in a deal worth Forints 2.1bn ($US 7.8m).

GERMAN Rail's (DB) next-generation long-distance train the ICx made its first appearance on the German mainline network at the end of December, when the first ICx set was hauled from Bombardier's Henningsdorf plant near Berlin to Siemens' Wildenrath test centre in North Rhine Westphalia.

MPK Lodz signed a Zlotys 166m ($US 45.8m) contract with Pesa on December 30 for 22 low-floor LRVs, which will be used on the Polish city's 120km metre-gauge tram network.

GORAIL, the only operator of regular passenger services between Estonia and Russia, has announced it will cut its daily Tallinn – St Petersburg train back to just two return services per week next month.

BLS, Switzerland, announced on January 6 that it has reached an agreement with German Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Schweiz Holding, part of DB Schenker Rail, to buy back its 45% stake in BLS Cargo for an undisclosed sum.

FOLLOWING several years of decline in the wake of the global economic crisis, passenger numbers on Ireland's railway network are finally growing again according to the latest figures from Irish Rail (IE), which show overall ridership increased by 2.5% in 2014 to 37.6 million journeys.

ISTANBUL Metropolitan Municipality has placed a Won 103.8bn ($US 93.3m) provisional order with Hyundai Rotem for the supply of 17 four-car metro trains that will boost capacity on Line M2 between Yenikapi and Haciosman.

POLAND's PKP Cargo signed an agreement on December 30 to acquire an 80% stake in AWT, the Czech Republic's second-largest railfreight operator, from Czech businessman Mr Zdenek Bakala and the Bakala Trust.