Russian Railways (RZD) has awarded Siemens a 40-year maintenance contract for the Lastochka regional trains that Siemens started building in 2013. Negotiations began in 2011 when Siemens was originally commissioned to build the new trains, in an order reportedly worth €2bn.

THREE years after the first train arrived in Italy, the fleet of CAF Civity EMUs ordered by the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia finally entered passenger service with the timetable change on June 14, when three ETR 563 sets were introduced on the Tarvisio - Udine - Trieste route.

SAN FRANCISCO Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) unveiled a full-size mock-up of its forthcoming S200 SF LRV on June 16 and confirmed that it has exercised an option with Siemens for 40 additional vehicles.

INDIAN Railways (IR) has launched a tender for a contract worth around Rs 25bn (390m) to supply 315 EMU cars for inter-city services.

A prototype 1524mm-gauge LRV developed by the Stadler Minsk joint venture of Stadler Rail and Belkommunmash, Belarus is to undergo trials in the Russian city of Samara following four months of successful testing with Moscow tram operator Mosgortrans.

THE board of Ile-de-France transport authority Stif adopted a financing agreement on June 15 which will fully fund a €63m order for 17 additional Alstom Citadis LRVs for Paris light rail Line T3 to support the extension of the line and increase capacity on the existing route.

NETINERA Germany subsidiary Regentalbahn has awarded Alstom a contract to supply 12 two-car Lint 41 DMUs for its Oberpfalzbahn network in southeastern Germany to replace the fleet of Link DMUs on order from Pesa, Poland, which were due to enter service last December but have still not been authorised for passenger use.

A flywheel-based energy recovery system could reduce fuel consumption on DMUs by up 10%, according to the findings of a research project carried out by Ricardo, Artemis Intelligent Power, and Bombardier.

EGYPT's Ministry of Transport has applied to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for a €175m loan to help fund the acquisition of a fleet of trains for the Cairo metro.

SOLARIS, Poland, has delivered the first of 15 standard-gauge Tramino S111O low-floor LRVs for the first phase of the light rail network in the Polish city of Olsztyn.