SOUTHEASTERN Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Septa) has awarded Ansaldo STS, a Hitachi Group Company, a $US 53m contract to install communications-based train control (CBTC) on the Media and Sharon Hill lines of Septa's light rail network.

EGYPT's National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) has awarded Alstom and its consortium partners contracts worth €187m to supply signalling, telecommunications and electromechanical equipment for the phase 3 extension of Cairo Metro's Line 3.

GREATER Stockholm Local Transport (SL), which is responsible for the urban rail network in the Swedish capital, has awarded a SKr 270m ($US 31.5m) contract to Veidekke Anläggning Öst and subcontractor Eltel to rebuild Roslags Näsby station on the 891mm-gauge Roslagsbanan.

Testing is underway on a Paris metro line using LTE as a component of the automated signalling system. Angus Hammond outlines the objectives of the trial and the potential benefits of using LTE.

Italian State Railways (FS) is pushing the boundaries of ERTMS to raise line speeds on its high-speed network, increase capacity in the major cities, improve interoperability for freight, reduce the cost of running rural lines to save them from closure, and make better use of the data produced by ERTMS. As Fabio Senesi, head of control and command systems and telecommunications with Italian Rail Network, explains to David Briginshaw, in many cases this means developing solutions ahead of anyone else.

Denmark's bold decision to renew its entire signalling infrastructure raised eyebrows across the signalling community when details of its plans first emerged nearly 10 years ago. With work on the major contracts now well underway, Kevin Smith visited Banedanmark in Copenhagen to find out how the project is progressing.

HITACHI announced on November 2 that it has completed the acquisition of Italian train builder AnsaldoBreda and signalling specialist Ansaldo STS from Finmeccanica.

ALSTOM says that the company is now entirely focussed on rail transport following the conclusion of the sale of its energy divisions to General Electric (GE) under a deal worth €12.4bn.

THE US rail industry's push to extend the congressionally-imposed deadline for the implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) yielded a breakthrough on October 28, when the Senate passed the Surface Transportation Extension Act 2015 (HR 3819) which authorises federal funding for the Highway Trust Fund and gives the railways three more years to roll out PTC.

THE United States House of Representatives approved a bill on October 27 authorising federal funding for highway and transit projects until the end of November but, crucially for the country's railways, also extends the deadline for implementing Positive Train Control by at least three years.