JAPAN's Seibu Railway has awarded Hitachi a contract to supply seven eight-car EMUs for limited express services on its 1067mm-gauge network to the northwest of Tokyo.

GYÖR-Sopron-Ebenfurth Railway (GySEV) is planning to acquire 26 surplus inter-city coaches from Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) for use on Sopron - Budapest services in a deal worth Forints 3.1bn ($US 11.1m).

Funding and soft loans from European Union facilities and affiliated organisations promise to deliver long-awaited Eastern European rail infrastructure improvements over the next decade or so. Artur Perchel, manager, Central Eastern Europe & Israel at the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), assesses the impact.

Rolling stock using Saudi Arabia's North-South Railway has suffered from severe wheel-wear issues since the line opened in 2011. Success in overcoming this problem provides lessons for the design of future desert heavy-haul networks as Thomas Hewitt, project manager rolling stock at Canarail, explains.

BUSAN Transportation Corporation has awarded Hyundai Rotem a Won 52.8 trillion ($US 442.1m) contract to supply 40 new metro trains for use on Metro Line 1.

METROPOLITAN EAD, which operates the two-line metro in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, has awarded Siemens and Newag, Poland, a €140m contract to supply trains and signalling for the first phase of the new Line 3, which is due to open in 2019.

Israel's network expansion programme and technological upgrades are set to revolutionise rail transport in the country in the next four to five years. Kevin Smith visits facilities in Haifa and Lod to see how the railway is preparing for the transition.

Once the butt of jokes for its poor reliability and slow journey times, Israel Railways is undergoing a radical transformation which promises to turn it into a competitive and viable means of transport for more and more people. CEO Boaz Tzafrir outlines to Kevin Smith how the company is delivering these improvements.