BADEN-Württemberg municipal transport operator Albtal Transport (AVG) has begun testing the use of glass reinforced plastic (GRP) catenary masts as part of a pilot project with Powerlines Group, Austria.

VOSSLOH announced on August 3 that it had signed a contract with international engineering enterprise Laing O’Rourke for the acquisition of Australian concrete sleeper manufacturer Austrak, with closing expected in the third quarter of 2018 subject to regulatory approval.

GERMAN infrastructure manager DB Network has launched a new website called iTrace which enables more than 420 German rail companies and those entitled to access its infrastructure, the opportunity to submit proposals online for enhancements to the network.

NEW Zealand national operator KiwiRail will restart its South Island Coastal Pacific passenger service on the Main North Line between Picton and Christchurch from December 1, two years operations were suspended due to the Kaikoura earthquake on November 14 2016, which damaged a large section of the coastal line.

THE RC2 consortium, which has been awarded the contract to re-electrify Line C of the Paris RER network between Paris Austerlitz and Bretigny sur Orge, has awarded Tesmec Service a €14.25m contract to design and supply nine work vehicles to assist with their deployment.

SWEDEN’s infrastructure manager Trafikverket temporarily closed the Linköping - Kalmar, Linköping - Västervik and Berga - Oskarshamn lines to both passenger and freight traffic on July 25 following an alert from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute that temperatures could rise above 30 degrees Celsius.

NIGERIAN Railway Corporation (NRC) invites suppliers and consultants to pre-qualify for several projects under its 2018 budget for its narrow and standard-gauge networks, including new trains.

SINGAPORE Land Transport Authority has awarded a Siemens and Engie Services Consortium a contract to supply 1253 new track circuits, as well as Siemens’ RailCom Manager System for fully-integrated track circuit condition monitoring.

CANADIAN National (CN) and Vossloh have signed a multi-annual framework contract for the supply of turnouts, following on from a similar agreement for concrete sleepers, which was signed in April.

THE Netherlands government has decided to reconstruct and expand Amsterdam Central and Amsterdam South stations in order to improve accessibility to the Dutch capital and increase the capacity of the city’s rail network.