PUBLIC Transport Authority of Western Australia (PTA) has issued a request for prequalification for a $A 1.6bn ($US 1.4bn) tender to supply a fleet of 17 six-car EMUs for its Metronet project plus 24 six-car trains to replace ageing A-Series trains on its Perth commuter rail network.

THE government of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has announced that track laying on Sydney Metro Northwest has been completed, and the project is on course to be delivered at least $A 500m ($US 379m) under budget.

ZÜRICH Public Transport (VBZ) unveiled a mock-up of its forthcoming Bombardier Flexity low-floor LRV on April 24.

CRRC Qingdao Sifang confirmed on April 24 that it has signed a $US 277.9m contract with Argentina’s Ministry of Transport to supply 200 EMU cars for the Buenos Aires suburban network.

BRITISH Steel has started construction of a new rail mill in Scunthorpe, Britain, to produce Zinoco-coated rails up to 108m long and welded rails with a maximum length of 216m. This follows approval by Network Rail (NR) of its Zinoco-coated long rails.

SWITZERLAND’s second-largest railway BLS published its annual results on April 19, revealing that the company’s rail, bus, and lake shipping services had breached the 1 billion passenger-km barrier for the first time.

DARMSTADT Regional Council has approved a planning application for a 1.1km extension of the city’s metre-gauge tram network to the Darmstadt Technical University campus on Lichtwiesenweg in the south of the city.

TRANSDEV, Germany’s largest private public transport operator, is calling for fair competition in train ticket distribution and full access to all ticket sales channels including apps and websites.

PARIS Transport Authority (RATP) has awarded a contract to Alstom to supply and install communications-based train control (CBTC) equipment to enable automatic train control to be introduced on Line 6 of the Paris metro.

DETAILS of a new fleet of high-speed trains to serve venues for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics were revealed by China Railway Corporation (CRC) on April 23.