RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan for the construction of a $US 2.4bn railway, according to provincial governor Mr Awang Faroek.

THE Thai cabinet has approved track-doubling of the main line linking Bangkok, Khon Kaen and Nong Khai near the Laos border, and has endorsed a project to build a new line from Khon Kaen to Nakhon Phanom in the northeast of Thailand.

THE AFGHAN government says design studies have been completed on the country's second international railway link.

MONGOLIA's ambitious plans to build a railway network that will serve its rapidly growing coal export industry appears to have hit the buffers due to financing difficulties and bureaucratic deadlock.

India's Western Railway (WR) completed the conversion of its dc suburban network in Mumbai to ac on February 4, bringing to an end 84 years of dc operation.

PLANS to build a northeast-southwest metro line across Kuala Lumpur took a significant step forward last month with the announcement that Malaysian companies IJM and Ahmed Zaki Resources (AZRB) have been selected as the main civil works contractors for two elevated sections of the line.

PAKISTAN Railways is to issue a tender for a third time for procurement of 150 new locomotives.

GERMAN infrastructure manager DB Networks is planning major remedial work to track and the overall roof at Berlin Main Station less than six years after it opened.

INVESTIGATIONS by Germany's competition authority have revealed that DB Networks was the victim of a steel price-fixing cartel which operated between 1998 and 2008.