ROMANIAN national passenger operator CFR Calatori says it is planning to order five new inter-regional EMUs this year for use on recently-upgraded routes including Bucharest to Constanta, Brasov, and Craiova.

HAMBURG U-Bahn operator Hamburger Hochbahn has exercised an option worth around €100m with Alstom for a further 27 DT5 trains.

SWEDISH open-access operator and traction provider Hector Rail has acquired 15 six-axle class 151 freight locomotives from DB Schenker with the aim of offering railfreight operators a cost-effective alternative to leasing new locomotives.

TRANSMASHHOLDING (TMH) has unveiled a prototype EMU, the EP2D, developed by its Demikhovsky Engineering Plant subsidiary, and will soon undergo dynamic tests at the Railway Research Institute (VNIIZHT) test track in Shcherbinka, near Moscow.

BADEN-Württemberg Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and the state's public transport authority NVBW have published a tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union for a contract to operate the Ulm star regional network south of Stuttgart for 13 years and six months from June 2019.

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) will introduce ticket barriers at two major stations from January 11 as part of a three-month trial seeking to address the issue of fare evasion, which costs SNCF around €300m a year in lost revenue.

CHINA's top economic planning body the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) confirmed on January 8 that it has given the go-ahead for the Yuan 13.2bn ($US 2bn) second phase of the metro network in Shijiazhuang, the largest city in Hebei province.

THE governments of Mali and Senegal have signed contracts worth a total of $US 2.7bn with China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) for the reconstruction of the 1286km metre-gauge line from the Malian capital Bamako to Dakar on Senegal's Atlantic coast.

PARIS Transport Authority (RATP) has awarded Siemens a €67m contract to supply automation and operational control systems for the conversion of metro Line 4 to driverless operation, which will enable the operation of 85-second headways on the city's second-busiest metro line.

THE European Commission's Innovation and Network's Executive Agency (INEA) signed the final grant agreements for the last batch of Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) projects on January 7, meaning that work on 263 key European transport infrastructure projects worth €12.7bn included in CEF are now underway.