THE first of six Newag type 39WE EMUs for Warsaw Commuter Railway (WKD) is undergoing dynamic tests at the Polish Railway Research Institute test track at Żmigród ahead of delivery to the capital at the end of next month.

LOUGHBOROUGH University has received funding from Britain's Railway Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) for a two-and-a-half-year project to build a full-size prototype of its Repoint track switch.

BRAZILIAN Urban Trains Company (CBTU) has unveiled proposals to expand the 56.2km diesel-operated light network in Natal, the state capital of Rio Grande do Norte, with the addition of a third line.

A draft study evaluating high-capacity transit options for the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the University of Michigan has recommended light rail for the project.  

THALYS has unveiled plans to launch new low-fares services between Paris and Brussels next month in a bid to draw motorists travelling between the French and Belgian capitals away from their cars and onto high-speed trains.

SYSTRA announced on March 3 that it has acquired Swedish railway signalling business Dalco Elteknik for an undisclosed sum.

IRJ at UIC ERTMS world conference Brussels. The path towards an interoperable version of ETCS Level 3 suitable for use in Europe still appears to be some way off.

SWISS railfreight operator BLS Cargo reported an 11% increase in traffic last year with a total of 18,225 trains operated compared with 16,486 in 2014.

THE Chinese city of Qingdao has launched passenger operations on the city's inaugural light rail line, the 9km link from Qianwangtuan to Chenyang Wholesale Market.

NEW Zealand's national rail operator, KiwiRail, has posted a net loss of $NZ 16.2m ($US 10.94m) for the six months to December 31 2015. This is an increase of $NZ 9.4m compared with the same period in 2014.