THE first of the V250 Fyra high-speed trains rejected by Netherlands Railways (NS) began its journey from Watergraafsmeer yard in Amsterdam back to the AnsaldoBreda plant in Pistoia, Italy, on September 7.

THE WORLD's largest rolling stock manufacturers CNR and CSR have suspended trading of their shares following reports in the Chinese media that the Chinese government is looking to merge the two companies.

STAGECOACH has announced an order worth £210m with Siemens and train leasor Angel Trains for a fleet of 30 five-car Desiro City EMUs for its South West Trains suburban commuter services to and from London Waterloo.

ROLLING stock leasor Eversholt Rail has awarded Alstom a £36.1m contract to refurbish its 40 class 334 EMUs operated by First ScotRail on services between Glasgow and Edinburgh via Bathgate.

Electrification, signalling upgrades and rolling stock renewal are all part of Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) plans to boost service frequency and revenues from its network over the next few years. Kevin Smith met TRA's new director general Dr Joe Chou in Taipei to find out how the work is progressing.

DYNAMIC testing of the first LRV for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is underway at the CNR Changchun plant in China.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has carried out a series of demonstration runs in western Siberia using its new-generation Lastochka (Swallow) EMU, the first appearance of the type east of the Urals.

THE FIRST of six 200km/h Flirt EMUs for Swedish open-access operator MTR Express left the Stadler Rail plant in Bussnang, Switzerland, on August 21 bound initially for the company's train commissioning centre in nearby Erlen.

BIDS are invited by London Underground (LU) for trains for the Northern and Jubilee lines to enable a more a frequent service to be operated on each line following resignalling and to provide additional trains for an extension of the Northern Line.