Voestalpine Signaling Sainerholz has developed a range of modular and compact point machines which can be laid on top of concrete sleepers or slab track and in the centre of the track gauge. CEO Holger Puetz explains how the new machines should be more reliable and need less maintenance than traditional point motors.

DB Networks has successfully carried out tests of Vossloh’s High Speed Grinding technology on turnouts and is expected to expand deployment across the German network in 2017. Dr Konstantin von Diest, head of preventive maintenance at Vossloh Rail Services, and Mr Rainer Meyer, head of turnout maintenance and Flexis at Vossloh Mobile Rail Services, reveal the work that has taken place over the last three years.

DB Network is planning to extend its remote point condition monitoring programme, connecting more than 12,500 point machines to the Diana monitoring and analysis platform, for which Strukton will deliver another 800 data loggers.

NORWEGIAN infrastructure manager Jernbaneverket is evaluating the use of synthetic sleepers on bridges and in tunnels as an alternative to traditional creosoted-wood sleepers.

PRESIDENT Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya has officially launched the construction of the 120km Phase 2A of the 489km standard-gauge railway linking Mombasa with the Ugandan border.

THE Dutch government has agreed to adopt a proposal by the secretary of state for infrastructure Mrs Sharon Dijksma to bring infrastructure manager Prorail under direct state control, according to reports in the Dutch press on October 16.

PAVLODAR Tram Management Company, Kazakhstan, invites bids by December 5 for the supply of 25 low-floor trams for delivery within 12 months of the contract being signed.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) International started work on October 17 on a $US 38m project to reconstruct the Vinarci - Dzordzevo line in Serbia, which is the last of the three southern sections of TEN-T Corridor X to be reconstructed by RZD.

AN onboard optical-fibre track monitoring system developed by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is being installed on the two original lines of the Singapore metro.

THE Institute of Railway Research (IRR) at Britain’s University of Huddersfield has unveiled a new 150-tonne bogie test rig, which it says is the only one of its type in Europe. and inaugurated the Centre for Innovation in Rail.