THREE French ministries have formed a joint venture with Alstom and Ademe, a government agency which funds sustainability projects, to develop the country's next-generation high-speed train

SINGAPOREAN prime minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong inaugurated the second phase of the Downtown Line (DTL2) on December 26, extending the total length of the line to 20.9km and improving rail links to the northwest of the island.

THE Chinese city of Nanchang opened its first metro line on December 26 with the start of passenger operations on the initial phase Line 1.

LONDON Underground (LU) took delivery of two new points and crossings tampers supplied by Matisa, Switzerland, in early December.

A Bombardier Traxx AC3 Last Mile locomotive owned by leasing company Railpool was tested on the Zagreb - Slavonski Brod line on December 14 with the aim of completing authorisation for the commercial operation of the type in Croatia during the first quarter of 2016.

OMNITRAX Canada has confirmed that it is selling the Port of Churchill and the associated Hudson Bay Railway Company to an unidentified group of northern-Manitoba-based First Nations for an undisclosed sum.

PANAMA Metro has awarded a €145m contract to a consortium including Alstom, Thales, Sofratresa, CIM, and TSO to expand the Panama City metro Line 1 train fleet and upgrade the line's signalling system, power supply, and depot facilities.

NORWAY will invest NKr 1bn ($US 76m) over the next two years in a package of measures designed to improve the competitiveness of railfreight, under a programme outlined by infrastructure manager Jernbaneverket on December 17.

SCOTLAND's minister for transport and islands Mr Derek Mackay and ScotRail Alliance managing director Mr Phil Verster announced details of ScotRail's £475m fleet improvement programme at Milngavie station near Glasgow on December 21.

IRJ has put together a great line-up of speakers for its International Railway Summit being staged in association with IRITS Events in Vienna on February 17-19 2016. The main theme of the event is the future of rail transport.