The Fortescue Railway operates some of the longest and heaviest trains in the world, and in the seven years since it began hauling iron-ore across the deserts of the Pilbara region, it continues to push the technical boundaries of heavy-haul. Keith Barrow reports from Western Australia on the latest developments in Fortescue's unrelenting quest for greater efficiency and higher capacity.

A ceremony was held on October 30 at Shenyang East station in China to mark the first trial run of a Far East Land Bridge (Felb)-operated railfreight service to Hamburg using the northern route of the Transsiberian Railway.

EGYPTIAN National Railways (ENR) has issued a general procurement notice regarding its plans to upgrade the passenger service on the busy 208km Cairo – Alexandria corridor and possibly on the 879km main line from Cairo south to Luxor and Aswan.

EUROSTAR moved an important step closer to the launch of its Siemens e320 Velaro (class 374) high-speed trains on October 16, when the French Railway Safety Board (EPSF) granted an authorisation to place into service (APS) enabling the fleet to operate commercially in France.

BRITISH rolling stock leasing company Porterbrook has awarded Bombardier a contract to supply 80 additional class 387 EMU vehicles, supplementing 256 class 387 cars already ordered for services in southeast England.

HITACHI announced on November 2 that it has completed the acquisition of Italian train builder AnsaldoBreda and signalling specialist Ansaldo STS from Finmeccanica.

ALSTOM says that the company is now entirely focussed on rail transport following the conclusion of the sale of its energy divisions to General Electric (GE) under a deal worth €12.4bn.

EAST Japan Railway Company (JR East) has confirmed its prototype E235 suburban EMU will enter commercial service on Tokyo's circular Yamanote Line on November 30.

THE HAGUE Tramways (HTM) launched its new fleet of Siemens Avenio LRVs on the morning of November 2, when the first of the low-floor vehicles entered passenger service on Line 2 between Kraayenstein and Leidschendam North.

IN what looks likely to be a rail industry first, Locomore, Germany, launched a crowdfunding campaign on October 29 in a bid to finance a new Stuttgart - Berlin open-access service, which could begin operating in September 2016.