CHILEAN State Railways (EFE) has awarded Indra, Spain, a 10-year contract worth €6.9m to supply, install, configure, test and maintain a multiservice IP/MPLS data transmission network.

ABELLIO Rail Südwest has awarded Bombardier a €215m contract to supply 43 Talent 2 EMUs for Baden-Württemberg Network 1a (Neckar Network), which Abellio will operate for 13 years from 2019.

THE board of Sound Transit has unanimously approved changes to the Sound Transit 3 Draft Plan (ST3), bringing light rail extensions included in the strategy forward by 2-5 years and adding further new lines to Renton, Kirkland, and North Seattle.

CONSTRUCTION has started on the third and final section of the 27km Semmering Base Tunnel in Austria with work on the entire €3.3bn project now in full swing.

LONG Island Rail Road (LIRR) has awarded two design-build contracts for track-doubling on part of the Ronkonkoma branch.

CHINA Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) signed a contract with CRRC Qishuyan, China, for on May 30 for 56 diesel locomotives, which will be used on the initial phase of Kenya's standard-gauge railway.

THE cost of constructing a Y-shaped high-speed line linking Stockholm with Gothenburg and Malmö is likely to be lower than previously forecast, according to new calculations published by Swedish infrastructure manager Trafikverket on May 31.

VOSSLOH Locomotives, Germany, held a topping-out ceremony on June 3 for its new locomotive factory on the Kiel Business Campus 11 months after ground braking under its plan to relocate form Kiel-Friedrichsort to Kiel-Suchsdorf.

MORE than 5000 Parisians attended a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the future Fort d'Issy-Vanves-Clamart station on June 4 to mark the official start of construction on the first phase of the €25bn Grand Paris orbital express metro network.

THE mayor of Rio de Janeiro Mr Eduardo Paes inaugurated the first phase of the 28km Porto Maravilha light rail network on June 5.