WORK on a building which will house a new railway operating centre (ROC) for signalling and train control systems on Britain's east coast network from London Kings' Cross to the Scottish borders was completed in York on September 12.

A consortium of Alstom, Russian Railways subsidiary RZD International, and the Belgrade-based Mikhaljo Pupin has been awarded a contract to supply signalling systems for the upgrading of a section of the Serbian Railways (ZS) line between Belgrade Vrsac and the Romanian border near Pančevo.

With ERTMS set to be rolled out on some of Britain's busiest main lines over the next five years, testing and validation is now well underway in preparation for large-scale deployment. Keith Barrow visits Network Rail's ETCS National Integration Facility to see how the infrastructure manager is preparing for the transition.

During the last 15 years, Transportation Technology Center Inc has worked closely with the US rail industry to develop many of the technologies required to implement Positive Train Control. As Joseph Drapa, senior engineer II with TTCI explains, there is still more work to be done.

EXPRESSIONS of interest are being sought by London Underground (LU) from systems suppliers for the installation of communications-based train control (CBTC) on the Bakerloo, Central, Piccadilly and Waterloo & City lines.

MOVE São Paulo, the PPP concessionaire responsible for building and operating São Paulo metro Line 6, has awarded Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) contract to provide railway systems for the 13.5km driverless line.

ALSTOM says it is ready to start test running at its Valenciennes test centre in northern France with its Urbalis communications-based train control (CBTC) and Huawei's LTE 4G telecommunications system.

FROM December trains operating on the cross-border link between Zevenaar, the Netherlands, and the German border, will only be able to use ETCS Level 2 signalling with signals along the line and the Dutch ATB-EG automatic train protection system set to be removed.

AS part of continuing efforts to improve Europe's transport infrastructure through the Trans-European Network (TEN-T) programme, the European Union has allocated €320m to support 106 projects, including €50.25m to fund 50% of the cost of 18 rail project studies.

SPAIN's high-speed network infrastructure manager, Adif Alta Velocidad, has awarded a €98.6m upgrading and 20-year maintenance contract for a 65km section of the Barcelona – Valencia main line to a consortium led by CAF Signalling.