China-Europe intermodal freight is a major success story of recent years. Kevin Smith considers the factors driving continuing development and the challenges that trans-Eurasian services face to realise their full potential.

INDIAN Railways (IR) has decided to upgrade the 245km Delhi - Chandigarh main line to increase the maximum speed for passenger trains to 200km/h.

ATTIKO Metro published an invitation to tender on April 10 for contracts to build and equip the initial phase of Athens metro Line 4.

SUZHOU added a second north-south line to its metro network on April 15 with the start of trial passenger operation on Line 4.

PLANS to construct a third track on a congested section of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) have taken a step forward with the publication of a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the project after more than a year of data collection, analysis and public consultation.

POLISH infrastructure manager PKP PLK has awarded two contracts worth a total of Zlotys 646m ($US 161m) for the modernisation of a 63km section of the Warsaw - Radom line.

AN agreement has been reached between the Israeli government and CityPass, the concessionaire of the Jerusalem light rail network, to extend the Red Line at each end and build a section of the Green Line.

TANZANIA’s president Mr John Magufuli officially launched construction on April 12 of the first phase of the country’s 2561km standard-gauge railway project which will eventually link the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam with Mwanza on Lake Victoria and Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika, as well as neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi.

A contract worth around Yuan 2.51bn ($US 364.5m) has been awarded to CRRC Qingdao Sifang for a fleet of 11 eight-car trains with a design speed of 350km/h to operate on the 142.3km Jakarta - Bandung high-speed line which is due to open in 2019.

SHANGHAI Metro has placed a Yuan 543m ($US 78m) contract with the CRRC Nanjing Puzhen Rail Transport joint venture for additional cars for Line 2.