GERMANY's Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) has agreed to allocate €23m through the Municipal Transport Financing Act (GVFC) to fund a €55m project which will increase capacity on the metre-gauge tram network in Freiburg-im-Breisgau.

WEST MIDLANDS transport authority Centro announced on August 14 that its new £40m fleet of CAF Urbos LRVs will be introduced on the Midland Metro on September 5, when the first four vehicles will enter passenger service on the 20km line from Birmingham City Centre to Wolverhampton.

SCOTLAND's Borders Railway project has celebrated a milestone with the laying of the first sections of track on the 48km line from Newcraighall, south of Edinburgh, to Tweedbank.

ON August 7 Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) subsidiary ÖBB Produktion published a tender for five second-hand electric locomotives certified to operate in Slovenia.

BRITISH infrastructure manager Network Rail announced on August 12 that trial operation has begun using a Bombardier 25kV 50Hz ac class 379 EMU adapted to operate under battery power as part of the Independently-Powered Electric Multiple Unit (IPEMU) project.

On-rail competition has transformed the railfreight landscape in Europe over the last 20 years, but in wagonload - a sector competing directly with road for nearly every load - operators increasingly see cooperation as the key to maintaining and growing the business. Keith Barrow looks at how an alliance between wagonload operators is working to deliver service standards comparable with road.

UTRECHT regional public transport authority BRU has awarded Strukton Systems a €5.5m contract to upgrade four substations and construct a new substation on the Utrecht- Nieuwegein/IJsselstein Fast Tram (SUNIJ) line.

THE steering committee of NTV approved the company's 2013 financial results at the end of July, showing the Italian open-access high-speed operator made a loss of €77m during its first full year of operation.

GERMAN Rail (DB) has awarded a €312m contract to a joint venture of Ed Züblin and Hochtief to construct the 4270m Rastatt tunnel as part of the project to upgrade the Karlsruhe – Basle corridor for 250km/h operation.

SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) will spend around SFr 1.5bn ($US 1.66bn) on revamping stations, modernising infrastructure and acquiring new rolling stock for Ticino, Switzerland's southernmost canton by 2020.