THE managing director of Germany's Pro-Rail Alliance, Mr Dirk Flege, has called for politicians to act on upgrading Germany’s rail network to accept 740m-long 35-wagon freight trains, which is supposed to become the standard in Europe.

CHINA’s first driverless subway line, the Yanfang line in Beijing will begin operations at the end of 2017 according to a report on August 29.

BRAZIL’s interim federal government led by president Michel Temer is investigating how to revive the country’s ambitious new line construction programme at a time of financial austerity by involving the country’s concessionaire rail freight operators.

ANKARA Metro Line M4 from Atatürk Cultural Center to Gazino in Keçiören, has been completed 12 years after the foundations were laid in 2004, and Turkish prime minister, Mr Binali Yildirim announced on August 31 that the line would open at the end of the year.

HONOLULU leaders and US Federal Transit Administration (FTA) officials reached an agreement on the Honolulu metro project on August 30 in which the 32km line will be built all the way to Ala Moana as planned rather than being cut back to Middle Street, but without additional federal funding.

MALAYSIAN prime minister Mr Najib Razak visited Semantan MRT station west of Kuala Lumpur on September 1 for his first ride on the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit Sungai Buloh - Kajang Line.

ALSTOM has been awarded a €125m contract by Rideau Transit Maintenance General Partnership, a consortium of SNC Lavalin O&M, ACS and EllisDon, to maintain Ottawa’s 12.5km light rail Confederation Line, which opens in 2018.

A consortium of Stadler Poland and Stadler Bussnang has been awarded a contract by Austrian-Hungarian operator Györ-Sopron-Ebenfurth Railway (GySEV) to supply 10 four-car Flirt 3 EMUs for regional services in western Hungary.

THE first refurbished Netherlands Railways (NS) VIRM double-deck EMU was unveiled at Nedtrain’s Haarlem workshops on August 30.

GERMAN Rail (DB) has announced it is working with technical universities in Chemnitz and Dresden to develop bi-mode (diesel and electric) trains with lithium-ion battery storage. Between 2017 and 2021 DB intends to convert 13 existing Siemens class 642 Desiro Classic DMUs to hybrid bi-mode configuration.