BERLIN Transport (BVG) has exercised an option worth around €140m with Stadler Pankow for 27 additional type IK small-profileU-Bahn trains, taking the total number of trains on order to 38.

Momentum appears to be building for the establishment of a tri-national S-Bahn centred on Basle, Switzerland. However, as Anitra Green reports, the project still needs to overcome several hurdles.

SCOTLAND's transport minister Mr Humza Yousaf was shown mock-ups of new sleeping cars at a warehouse near Edinburgh on June 30 by Mr Peter Strachan, managing director of Caledonian Sleeper.

BRITAIN's secretary of state for transport Mr Patrick McLoughlin launched Great Western Railway's (GWR) new fleet of Hitachi class 800 inter-city trains on June 30 with an inaugural trip on a bi-mode set from Reading to London Paddington.

SWITZERLAND's Rhaetian Railway (RhB) has awarded a SFr 285m ($US 292m) contract to Stadler for 27 new Flügel EMUs with an option for up to 20 additional trains. The trains will be built in Altenrhein, Switzerland, and the first will be handed over in summer 2019.

CDPQ Infra, Canada, published two requests for qualification on June 28 for its $C 5.5bn ($US 4.26bn) Metropolitan Electric Network (REM) project in Montreal to qualify candidates to bid for two contracts to build and equip the automated rail network.

CHENGDU Metro Corporation has awarded a €40m contract to Shanghai Alstom Transport Electrical Equipment (Satee) to supply traction equipment for 288 metro cars being built by CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles for operation on phases 2 and 3 of Line 3.

DUBAI Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) confirmed on June 29 that it has award the Alstom-led Expolink consortium a Dirhams 10.6bn ($US 2.9bn) contract to build and equip an extension of the metro Red Line to serve the Expo 2020 site.

TRENITALIA has selected Alstom and Hitachi Rail Italy (HRI) for two framework contracts with a combined value of up to €4.5bn to supply up to 450 regional trains.