THE Development Commission of Mecca and Mashaaer (DCOMM) has selected Parsons Brinckerhoff as the project management office consultant for the Mecca Public Transport Programme (MPTP) in a five-year contract worth $US 93.6m.

IRAQI Republic Railways has issued two calls for tender for the supply of track maintenance equipment as part of the long process to rehabilitate the 1900km railway after the devastating war.

SAUDI Railways Organisation (SRO) and Indra, Spain, have chosen Kapsch CarrierCom to install GSM-R on the 450km Haramain high-speed line under construction between Mecca, Jeddah, and Medina.

THE first of 11 Citadis 402 low-floor LRVs for Dubai’s Al Sufouh Tramway was presented to Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) chairman His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer at Alstom’s La Rochelle plant on June 14.

THE High Commission for Riyadh Development (HCRD) says that "three major global consortia" have submitted technical and financial offers for the Riyadh Metro project, a six-line driverless network which will eventually encompass 177km and 96 stations in the Saudi capital.

IRJ at the 60th UITP Congress Geneva: Alstom has developed a modular light metro system called Axonis which is designed to be quick to build and economic to construct and operate.

IRJ at the 60th UITP World Congress Geneva: Vinci, France, together with CAF, Spain, have launched Nextram, a light rail package which could be 30-40% cheaper than conventional systems for cities with a population of between 150,000 and 200,000 which up to now could only afford a bus solution.

QATAR Rail has signed a design-build contract with a consortium led by Impregilo, Italy, for the Red Line North section of the Doha metro network.

THE ISRAELI government has reached an agreement over controversial plans to cut the budget for new infrastructure projects, which have been put forward as part of proposals intended to reduce the country's Shekels 39bn ($US 10.8bn) budget deficit.

ISRAEL's national transport, infrastructure and roads safety minister Mr Yisarel Katz has sharply criticised new finance minister Mr Yair Lapid's plans to cut the infrastructure budget, particularly that allocated to rail, as part of efforts to reduce the country's Shekels 39bn ($US 10.76bn) budget deficit.