RAILWAY Infrastructure Serbia (IZS) will invest Dinars 1.9bn ($US 20m) in line upgrades in 2018 in order to reduce the total sections where speed restrictions are in place to less than 50km.

THE European Union (EU) has confirmed a further €38.5m in co-financing for the three-stage modernisation of Kosovo’s railway infrastructure.

ESTONIA’s Ministry of Public Administration approved the spatial plan for the Rail Baltica high-speed line in Estonia on February 14 thereby completing the final route and preliminary design of the entire railway in the three Baltic states.

BOMBARDIER Transportation recorded revenues of $US 8.5bn in 2017, a 13% increase from the $US 7.57bn reported in 2016. Ebit also increased by 5% from $US 396m to $US 417m, while Ebitda before special items soared by 23% from $US 657m to $US 810m.

ACCORDING to German press reports, three senior ministers in the German government have written to the European Union’s environment commissioner Mr Karmenu Vella proposing to make public transport in five German cities free-of-charge together with other measures in order to cut road transport pollution.

THE first class 1293 Vectron multi-system electric locomotive for Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) made its main line debut on February 14 with a test run from Siemens’ plant at Munich-Allach to Reichertshausen on the Munich - Ingolstadt line.

TRIMET, the public transport authority in Portland, Oregon, has launched a public consultation on plans to order 26 new LRVs, which will replace the oldest vehicles in the Max light rail fleet.

METROPOLITAN Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (Marta), which operates the Atlanta Streetcar 4.3km Downtown Loop light rail line, has engaged Siemens to maintain the fleet of four S70 LRVs which it supplied prior to the opening of the line in December 2014.

HUNGARIAN State Railways (MÁV) has awarded two contracts to modernise the Rákos - Hatvan section of the Budapest - Miskolc main line.

SLOVENIAN Railways (SŽ) has closed the bidding process for the sale of a 49% stake in its rail freight unit Tovorni Promet.