NTV, Italy's open-access high-speed operator, has announced that its founding president, Mr Luca di Montezemolo, has decided to step down. He is being replaced by Dr Antonello Perricone who joins NTV from the publishing world.
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to provide Polish infrastructure manager PKP PLK with two loans worth a total of €165m to upgrade two sections of line.
INDIA's Research, Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with HBL Power Systems, India, has carried out field trials using a new domestically-developed train protection system.
FOLLOWING a Europe-wide tender, DB Regio has won Lot 1 of the contract to operate the Eifel-Westerwald-Sieg network contract in western Germany comprising three routes and covering 2.3 million train-km per year.
A CEREMONY was held in Basle on October 22 to mark the opening of the city's second railway bridge across the river Rhine.
BRITAIN's Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and the Rail Research UK Association (RRUKA) have approved proposals from four British universities for studies into reducing the whole-life cost of rolling stock.
TRANSNET signed a Rand 2.6bn ($US 298m) contract with CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive, China, on October 22 for 95 dual-voltage electric locomotives, which are being ordered as part of a massive investment in railfreight capacity in South Africa.
INDIAN Railways (IR) has set the budget for infrastructure development for 2013-18 at Rs 4.56 trillion ($US 86.3bn).
CHILEAN State Railways (EFE) has awarded Alstom a $US 68m contract to supply and maintain a fleet of 12 Xtrapolis emus, which are being acquired as part of a $US 260m project to upgrade the 80km Santiago – Nós – Rancagua suburban line.
MARYLAND Board of Public Works has awarded Bombardier Transportation a $US 205m service contract to operate Maryland Area Regional Commuter (Marc) commuter rail services on the Camden (Baltimore Camden - Washington DC) and Brunswick (Martinsburg - Washington DC) lines from June 2013.
