THE final section of the Australian state of Victoria's $A 3.65bn ($US 2.8bn) Regional Rail Link was officially completed on June 14 paving the way for the introduction of new high-frequency timetable on June 21.

THE Kenyan government has decided to allocate an additional $US 1.4bn from its 2015-16 budget for the project, currently underway, to build a 609km standard-gauge line from the port of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi. 

THE University of Huddersfield's Institute of Railway Research (IRR) has been tasked with investigating innovative switches and crossings as well as new types of track system as part of the €18m In²Rail track and infrastructure programme, which is one of the three "lighthouse" projects within Europe's Shift²Rail project.

BIDDING has opened for the track improvement project on Philippine National Railways (PNR), worth Peso 144.3bn ($US 3.2m), in an attempt to revive and improve Southeast Asia’s oldest railway system.

Vossloh and VR Track, a subsidiary of Finnish state-owned railway VR Group, have signed contracts to jointly operate three switch production facilities and cooperate in continuous welded rail production.

TORRENTIAL rains in the Andean foothills in Chile´s Atacama region might put an end to rail transport on the 155km line from the copper smelter at Potrerillos, 2880m above sea level, down to the wharf on the coast at Barquito.

WHILE the new 2015-16 budget published by Australia's federal government on May 12 will see increases in spending on both rail and road infrastructure, the rate of increase for road is much greater than for rail, and federal funding for urban rail will be slashed.

SWEDISH infrastructure manager Trafikverket has selected Strukton Rail to modernise and remodel Tomteboda station, just north of Stockholm main station.

Greenrail, Italy, is in the early stages of developing a new sustainable railway sleeper. The company's research is also opening up the possibility to deliver further sustainable benefits from track infrastructure, as Marco Chiandoni explains.

Russian Railways uses various geosynthetic materials to protect track subgrade formations. Gleb Soloviev, design engineer at Tensar, Russia, and Dr Alexey Kolos, from the Petersburg State University of Railway Transport, compare the performance of different materials in Russia's harsh climatic conditions.