NATIONAL Express has placed its first rolling stock order for its German regional rail operations, with the awarding of €170m contract to Bombardier for 35 Talent 2 emus.
NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) says it is considering abandoning its fleet of V250 trains as it is unconvinced that AnsaldoBreda will be able to correct the numerous faults on the trains within an acceptable period.
SERBIAN Railways (ZS) president Mr Dragoljub Simonović and Mr Sergey Pavlov, CEO of Russian Railways (RZD) subsidiary RZD International, have signed a $US 800m loan agreement which will finance the renewal of rolling stock and infrastructure in what is described as the largest investment in the Serbian network for decades.
Ouigo, SNCF's new low-fare TGV service, has got off to a flying start since its launch at the beginning of April. As David Briginshaw reports from Paris, the service has already achieved a high satisfaction rating with passengers and attracted more people to rail than expected.
ŠKODA Transportation's newest LRV, the 26T, began testing in Pilsen, Czech Republic, on May 15 ahead of delivery of the first two vehicles to the northern Hungarian city of Miskolc in July.
ŠKODA Transportation has agreed a 10-year technology licensing contract with CSR Qingdao Sifang to produce up to 400 ForCity (15T) low-floor LRV cars for the Chinese market.
THE saga surrounding Fyra cross-border services between the Netherlands and Belgium took another twist on May 31, when Belgian National Railways (SNCB) announced it had cancelled its order for V250 high-speed trains with AnsaldoBreda.
MTR Shenzhen, the operator of Shenzhen Metro Line 4, has awarded Nanjing SR Puzhen Rail Transport (NPRT) a Yuan 420m ($US 67.74m) contract to supply 56 metro cars which will be delivered in 2013-14.
A ceremony was held in Yekaterinburg on May 25 to mark the start of production on the Russian build of 1200 "Lastochka" or Swallow emu cars for Russian Railways (RZD). Siemens and Sinara are building the trains under a €2 bn contract won in 2011.
IRJ at UITP 60th World Congress Geneva: Alstom has unveiled its new simplified CBTC called Urbalis Fluence which is designed to reduce the amount of lineside equipment by 20% by transferring the interlocking functions to the train. The system has been under development since 2010.
