INDIA's northeastern state of Tripura finally joined the national broad-gauge network on January 13, when minister of state for railways Mr Manoj Sinha greeted the arrival of the inaugural broad-gauge train in the state capital Agartala.

NORWEGIAN infrastructure manager Jernbaneverket awarded the first contract for the electrification of the 106km Trondheim - Hell - Storlien Meråker Line on January 12, when it signed a NKr 26.9m ($US 3m) deal with Swedish engineering consultancy Sweco, which will carry out detailed planning for the NKr 3bn project.

MEASURES to ensure non-discriminatory access to Germany's rail market and changes to the track access charging regime are being proposed under new draft legislation approved by the federal cabinet on January 13.

DELHI Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has awarded Thales a contract to upgrade fare collection systems across around 100 Phase 1 and Phase 2 stations.

THREE months ahead of schedule, the first Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) class 4744 Cityjet EMUs for the southern province of Styria entered passenger service on January 11.

PHOENIX Valley Metro has launched a tender for a contract to supply additional LRVs for the expansion of the light rail network in the state capital of Arizona.

RDC Deutschland, the German subsidiary of Railroad Development Corporation, United States, has begun trial operation of its new Autozug Sylt car and lorry carrying trains on the 39.3km Niebüll - Westerland (Sylt) line in Schleswig Holstein.

SWEDISH train leasing company Transitio has awarded Motala Train, Sweden, a contract to carry out heavy maintenance on its fleet of 25 class X11 EMUs, which are primarily used by regional operators Krösatågen and Norrtåg.

CHINA's top economic planning authority the National Development and Reform Commission approved a construction plan on December 31 for the Yuan 65.4bn ($US 9.9bn) second phase of the metro network in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, a day after testing began on the first section of Line 1.

AS the three-year extension granted by Congress in late 2015 gets underway, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) has set year-end 2016 goals for Positive Train Control (PTC) implementation in the United States.