MALAYSIAN prime minister Mr Najib Razak attended a groundbreaking ceremony in his home region of Pahang on August 9 to officially launch construction of the East Coast Rail Link, hailing the Ringgits 55bn ($US 12.8bn) project as a “game changer” for eastern states not currently served by the country’s national rail network.

CONSTRUCTION was officially launched on the 113.5km Dunhua - Baihe high-speed line in China’s northeastern Jilin province on August 8.

SWEDISH mining company LKAB has awarded Hector Rail a five-year contract to operate trains from its iron ore mines in Kiruna and Malmberget in the north of the country.

NOMAD Digital, Airbus Defence and Space (ADS), FirstGroup and TTG Transportation Technology are working together to support the development of real-time train location data sources to be used to locate trains at any given time.

SIEMENS confirmed on August 8 that it has received an order from DB Regio for 57 three-car Mireo EMUs for use on the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn network around Mannheim and Heidelberg.

TRIAL operation began on the initial phase of Beijing maglev Mentougou Line (Line S1) on August 5.

NETWORK RAIL (NR) has begun work to increase capacity at London Waterloo station, as part of the £800m Waterloo and South West upgrade, which will enable the station to accommodate 45,000 extra passengers in the morning and evening peaks.

WHILE the northern section of Brazil’s North-South Railway (FNS) from Açailândia to Barcarena struggles to get off the drawing board, the northern state of Pará is moving ahead with plans for the 1316km Paraense Railway (Fepasa), which will run parallel and the to west of the FNS along the state’s eastern flank.

SAUDI Railways Company (SAR), which operates the North-South Railway, achieved a 27% increase in phosphate and bauxite mineral traffic in the first half of 2017 which grew from 3.21 million tonnes in the first half of 2016 to 4.06 million tonnes this year.

PASSENGER numbers on Switzerland’s north-south Gotthard axis have surged since the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, according to figures released this week by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), which show ridership on the route has risen by 30% over the last eight months compared with the corresponding period in 2016.