CHILTERN Railways began operating London Marylebone - High Wycombe - Oxford Parkway services on October 26 following the completion of a £320m project to create a new link between the capital and Oxford.

DENVER Transit Partners, the PPP contractor building the East Rail A Line commuter rail link between Denver Union Station and Denver International Airport has notified Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) that the 36.7km electrified line will be ready for service on April 22.

THE International Union of Railways' (UIC) annual report of railway accidents in Europe shows that safety is continuing to improve across the 22 UIC member railways which participate in the UIC Safety Database.

KUALA Lumpur's Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (MRT Corp) confirmed on October 22 that the Malaysian government has given final approval for the 52.2km Klang Valley MRT Line 2 enabling construction to begin on the line from Sungai Buloh to Serdang and Putrajaya.

THE San Diego Association of Governments (Sandag) board of directors has voted unanimously to adopt the final version of San Diego Forward: The Regional Plan a sweeping regional blueprint which proposes investment of $US 204bn in transport infrastructure projects over the next 35 years.

THE first LRV to be assembled on Alstom's new €15m Citadis LRV production line at Taubaté in the Brazilian state of São Paulo was officially unveiled on October 21 and is now undergoing tests on the newly-commissioned test track at the facility.

CENTRAL Japan Railway Company (JR Central) confirmed on October 22 that it will receive a further 20 N700A series Shinkansen trains between fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2019 to replace the last of its remaining 700 series sets, which will be withdrawn by the end of the decade.

CROATIAN rail infrastructure manager HŽ Infrastruktura says it has selected a preferred bidder for a contract to modernise the 38.2km Dugo Selo - Križevci section of the line from Zagreb to Koprivnica and the border with Hungary near Gyékényes.

GERMAN open-access operator Hamburg-Cologne Express announced on October 20 that it will extend selected Hamburg - Cologne services to Frankfurt (Main) from the start of the 2016 timetable in December.

NETWORK Rail (NR) CEO Mr Mark Carne told the British parliament's Public Accounts Committee on October 21 that the cost of completing electrification of the Great Western Main Line (GWML) has increased to at least £2.5bn and could reach £2.8bn.