BANGALORE finally linked the eastern and western sections of the metro Purple Line on May 2, when the chief minister of Karnataka state Mr S Siddaramaiah and India's urban development minister Mr M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the 4.8km underground stretch between Magadi Road and MG Road.

THE first two units from an order for 15 multi-system Vectron locomotives arrived at BLS Cargo's works in Spiez, Switzerland, at the end of April, just 13 months after the order was placed with Siemens.

GERMAN Rail (DB) has awarded Icomera, Sweden, a contract to rollout onboard Wi-Fi on its fleet of 260 ICE trains currently in service and ICE 4 trains, which are gradually being introduced over the next few years.

REGULAR operation of 730m-long freight trains began in Sweden on April 28 following the completion of a multi-annual project by infrastructure manager Trafikverket to lengthen loops and double-track sections to accommodate longer trains.

POLISH long-distance operator PKP Intecity extended the operation of its ED250 Pendolino fleet to two new routes on April 29 with the launch of Warsaw - Jelena Gora and Krakow - Warsaw - Kolobrzeg EIC Premium services.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) reported a 10.8% year-on-year increase in revenues to Roubles 1.99 trillion ($US 30.97bn) in 2015 following growth in freight traffic and infrastructure access revenues during the year.

CROSSRAIL has awarded Linsinger, Austria, a contract worth around £12m to supply an MG31 rail milling train for the Elizabeth Line east-west link across central London.

AUSTRO-Hungarian operator Györ-Sopron-Ebenfurth Railway (GySEV) is seeking a €40m loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to help finance the acquisition of new electric locomotives.

THE European Commission (EC) has approved the allocation of €368m from the European Regional Development Fund to support construction of Sofia metro Line 3.

TRANSMASHHOLDING subsidiary Bryansk Engineering Plant (BMZ) has unveiled a prototype six-axle shunting locomotive for Russian Railways (RZD).