GERMAN regional operator Hessen State Railways has published an announcement in the Official Journal of the European Union confirming that it has exercised an option with Alstom Germany for five additional four-car class 1440 Coradia Continental EMUs.

A €50m contract has been awarded by Metroselskabet, Denmark, to Hitachi Rail Italy for an additional eight driverless trains for operation on lines M1 and M2 of the Copenhagen light metro.

BARCELONA Metropolitan Transport (TMB) has decided to award two contracts for 12 five-car trains worth €92m to CAF and Alstom to increase capacity on the metro by up to 20%. Delivery is scheduled to start in the second half of 2019.

THE first of 13 five-car rakes of Mark 5A coaches, which CAF is building for British franchisee Trans-Pennine Express (TPE), is on its way from Spain to the Velim test track in the Czech Republic.

THE first of 14 Škoda metre-gauge LRVs equipped with batteries for catenary-free operation arrived in Eskişehir, Turkey, on March 9.

RAILROAD Development Corporation (RDC) has developed plans to take a Vivarail D-Train from Britain to the United States to demonstrate how the rebuilt former London Underground (LU) trains could provide a low-cost rolling stock option for new passenger services.

THE design for new X-car six-car trains for the Vienna U-Bahn was presented on March 9 by the city’s environment councillor Ms Ulli Sima, Wiener Linien and Siemens.

SINGAPORE’s Land Transport Authority has awarded a $S 344.25m ($US 261.3m) contract to Bombardier upgrade the Bukit Panjang automated peoplemover and supply new rolling stock.

THE first Class 195 Civity DMU for Arriva Trains Northern has left CAF’s plant at Irun in northern Spain bound for the VUZ test track at Velim, where it will undergo dynamic testing prior to delivery to Britain.

AUSTRIA’s Zillertal Railway (ZB) launched a tender on March 6 for a contract to supply a fleet of hydrogen trains for its 32km 760mm-gauge line from Jenbach to Mayrhofen in Tyrol.