MTR Corporation and FirstGroup announced on June 16 that they will form a joint venture to bid for Britain's South Western franchise after the arrangement was approved by the Department for Transport.

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has adopted a multi-faceted approach to achieve the highest possible level of safety in the new 57km Gotthard base tunnel. Anitra Green reports from Switzerland.

THE first Silkworm low-floor LRV for the initial phase of the light rail network in the Songiang district of Shanghai was unveiled at the Rail+Metro China exhibition in Shanghai on June 14.

A Franco-Indian consortium led by Systra and including Aecom, Egis Rail and Rites has been appointed general consultant for the first phase of the Nagpur metro.

CZECH municipally-owned infrastructure manager Železnice Desná (ŽD), which owns two branch lines totalling 22km in Moravia, has completed a project electrify and modernise the 19km Šumperk - Kouty nad Desnou line.

With the handover of the Gotthard Base Tunnel to Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) on June 1, this mammoth project has entered the final phase before the start of commercial services on December 11. Keith Barrow looks at how SBB is preparing for a smooth transition to the new infrastructure.

AUSTRIAN Federal Railways (ÖBB) signed an agreement with the City of Vienna and the Austrian Ministry of Transport on June 14 to invest €450m to improve and expand the Vienna S-Bahn network.

GERMANY's Rhine-Main Transport Authority (RMV) announced on June 13 that regional operator Vias has ordered four Alstom Lint 54 DMUs for the Odenwald network south of Frankfurt-am-Main.

CHEMNITZ Transport (CVAG) signed a contract with Škoda Transportation on June 14 for 14 standard-gauge ForCity low-floor LRVs, which will replace the German city's ageing fleet of Tatra trams.