ACCORDING to a report by SCI Verkehr, the market for railway products and services in Africa and the Middle East is forging ahead, with an average annual growth rate of 4% predicted between now and 2022.

AN agreement was signed in the Estonian capital Tallinn on May 29 by the railways of three Baltic states to launch a new intermodal freight service called Amber Train.

ITALY’s Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport and the National Railway Safety Agency (ANSF) have rejected a plan by Italy’s infrastructure manager Italian Rail Network (RFI) to increase the maximum speed on some sections of the high-speed network from 300km/h to 350km/h plus a 10% tolerance.

THE planned merger between Siemens Mobility and Alstom has moved a step closer after Siemens has passed two key legal hurdles in France.

REGIONAL passenger services across the Øresund bridge linking Denmark and Sweden are to be enhanced and reorganised in three phases between 2019 and 2021 to increase capacity and improve reliability.

ELECTED officials and Bart representatives joined community members for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 25 to mark the start of services on the 16km Antioch extension of the Bart network the following day.

FLIXTRAIN has announced plans to add a second train pair on its new Stuttgart - Berlin route from June 21 with frequency set to increase to daily from five times per week from June 12.

BAVARIAN Railway Company (BEG) has agreed to fund the procurement of trains to operate on the 14.6km Gunzenhausen - Wassertrüdingen line in Germany, an extension of the current DMU-operated Pleinfeld - Gunzenhausen service, for 12 years from 2024.

UNITED Wagon Company, Russia, has won orders to supply hopper freight wagons and tank cars to two customers.

THE Rail Baltica joint venture company of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, RB Rail, invites bids by July 4 for a study into the procurement and deployment strategy for the development of a single concept for the energy system for the entire project.