EUROTUNNEL reported on December 23 that its Le Shuttle railfreight service for road vehicles set an annual record for Channel Tunnel lorry shipments in 2015 beating the previous record set in 2012.

INITIAL testing has been completed at Siemens' Allach plant in Munich on the first three EU 46 Vectron electric locomotives for PKP Cargo.

HOKKAIDO Railway Company is using a range of bearings developed by NSK for its new fleet of H5 trains that will be used Hokkaido Shinkansen between Shin-Aomori and Sapporo, which is due to open in March 2016.

COMMERCIAL services began on the 157.9km Tianjin - Baoding high-speed line on December 28, closing an important gap in the high-speed network south of Beijing.

ITALIAN minister for transport and infrastructure Mr Graziano Delrio and the mayor of Palermo Mr Leoluca Orlando inaugurated the Sicilian capital's light rail network on December 30.

BRITAIN's infrastructure manager, Network Rail (NR), has invited tenders for a £112m project to rebuild and expand Glasgow Queen Street station, the third busiest station in Scotland.

MID-SAXONY Transport Authority (VMS) says it will start using eight electro-diesel Citylink tram-trains for services from Chemnitz city centre to Hainichen, Burgstadt and Mittweida in early 2016.

STADLER Minsk has rolled out the first of two 1520mm-gauge EPm-001 inter-city EMUs for Belarus Railways (BC).

AUSTRALIAN railfreight operator Aurizon has announced up to $A 240m ($US 174.5m) in anticipated write-downs for its half year results which are due in February 2016, and says it will cease all development work on its West Pilbara Iron Ore Project (WPIP) joint venture.

THE University of Huddersfield's Institute of Railway Research (IRR) has secured a £140,000 grant to develop a software-based asset management tool to help light rail operators calculate the most appropriate rail-wear limits for their network with the aim of increasing maintenance intervals.