POSE, Argentina, has awarded a €10m sub-contract to Alstom to supply signalling equipment for a project to resignal four stations on the Merlo - Lobos branch of the Sarmiento Line in Buenos Aires for Argentinean Trains Infrastructure (TAI).

CALIFORNIA Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has released a research report that details the impact freight and passenger rail operations have on the Californian economy.

RUSSIA’s Federal Budgetary Organisation (FBO), which is responsible for railway certification, has approved the production of a new design of container flat wagon by TikhvinSpetsMash, a subsidiary of United Wagon Company, Russia.

GERMAN open-access operator Hamburg-Köln-Express (HKX), owned by Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), United States, is to suspend completely operation of its Hamburg - Cologne service between October 4 and December 10.

DUTCH infrastructure manager Prorail has released details of the 2018 timetable, which starts on December 10 2017, where the country’s 40-plus train operators plan to operate an all-time high of over 160 million train-km. This compares with 125 million train-km in 2003.

THE Swiss Canton of Valais has accepted an offer from BLS to take over the operation of the car shuttle through the Simplon tunnel between Brig and Iselle, Italy, from Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) starting on December 10.

CHINA Railway Corporation’s new CR400AF Fuxing high-speed trains entered passenger service on the Beijing - Tianjin route on August 21.

THE first train ran on Israel’s new 57km A1 line linking Tel Aviv with Jerusalem on August 20 from from Tel-Aviv to the end of the Latrun bridge which is now the longest bridge in Israel.

A 70:30 joint venture of FirstGroup and MTR took over Britain’s South Western franchise on August 20 from Stagecoach, which has operated the franchise as South West Trains (SWT) since the start of rail privatisation in 1996.

THE first batch of four trains for the Doha metro network were unloaded at Hamad Port in Qatar on August 20 after completing their 21-day sea voyage from Kobe, Japan.