AMTRAK has been awarded a five-year contract by Maryland Department of Transportation’s Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) to continue operating commuter rail services on Marc’s Penn Line linking Washington DC, BWI Airport, Baltimore and Perryville.

RAILROAD Development Corporation (RDC) has developed plans to take a Vivarail D-Train from Britain to the United States to demonstrate how the rebuilt former London Underground (LU) trains could provide a low-cost rolling stock option for new passenger services.

CANADIAN National (CN) announced on March 5 that its CEO Mr Luc Jobin is leaving the company with immediate effect following a period of operational difficulties which has drawn sharp criticism from some of the railway’s customers.

STATE support for Via Rail’s Fleet Renewal Program was confirmed on February 27 with the publication of the Canadian government’s 2018 budget, which allocates funds to Transport Canada for the procurement of new trains for the Windsor - Quebec City corridor.

ROLLS-ROYCE has won a contract from Knoxville Locomotive Works (KLW), United States, to supply two types of EPA Tier-4-compliant MTU diesel engines to power switching locomotives.

GREATER Vancouver Transportation Authority (Translink) announced on February 22 that it is bringing forward the acquisition of new trains for the SkyTrain automated metro network with the acquisition of 28 Hyundai Rotem cars for the Expo and Millennium lines.

THE board of New York state’s Niagra Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) voted on February 22 to authorise the awarding of a $US 4.8m contract to WSP USA for environmental review and engineering design services on the first phase of the 11km extension of the Buffalo light rail network to Amherst.

TORONTO and Hamilton transit authority Metrolinx has published the findings of its Hydrail Feasibility Study into the potential use of hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) trains on the Go Transit commuter rail network.

BOMBARDIER Transportation recorded revenues of $US 8.5bn in 2017, a 13% increase from the $US 7.57bn reported in 2016. Ebit also increased by 5% from $US 396m to $US 417m, while Ebitda before special items soared by 23% from $US 657m to $US 810m.

TRIMET, the public transport authority in Portland, Oregon, has launched a public consultation on plans to order 26 new LRVs, which will replace the oldest vehicles in the Max light rail fleet.