THE opening of an extension of the Wolverhampton - Birmingham Midland Metro light rail line to Birmingham New Street station finally took place on May 30 following track remedial works which had forced the postponement of the original opening scheduled for May 22.

FEMERN, the organisation responsible for constructing the 18km Fehmarn Belt road-rail tunnel between Rødby, Denmark, and Puttgarden, Germany, has signed four major construction contracts worth almost DKr 30bn ($US 4.5bn) to two consortia.

THE design and internal layout for the fleet of MP14 rubber-tyred metro trains which Alstom is building for Paris Transport Authority (RATP) was unveiled at Alstom's Paris headquarters by the company's chairman and CEO Mr Henri Poupart-Lafarge.

SWEDISH infrastructure manager Trafikverket has launched a consultation on three options being considered for the future funding and operation of overnight trains from Stockholm to northern Sweden following the completion of a study into the economics of the services.

CHINA's top economic planner the National Development and Reform Commission has given the go-ahead for a high-speed line linking Jiaozuo near Zhengzhou in Henan province with Taiyuan, the provincial capital of neighbouring Shanxi.

THE 2016-17 Transport for London (TfL) budget presented to the London Assembly includes funding for improvements to the Croydon Tramlink network including capacity enhancements and additional LRVs.

TESTING is underway on Korea's Suseo high-speed line, which links Gangnam in Seoul with the existing Gyeongbu high-speed line, although opening of the 61.1km line has been pushed back to the end of the year to allow structural reinforcement work at one of the stations.

THE World Bank has agreed to provide a $US 500m seed capital loan with a seven-year repayment moratorium to kick-start Indian Railways' (IR) station redevelopment programme, which will be financed through a combination of intergovernmental agreements and public-private partnerships.

TURKISH State Railways (TCDD) has appointed Mr Isa Apaydin chairman of the board and director-general, succeeding the former director general Mr Ömer Yildiz.

THE first of a new fleet of 160 new metro cars for St Petersburg has been presented to the city's governor Mr Georgy Poltavchenko by Transmashholding (TMH) at the SmartTransport exhibition, which is being held in the city this week.