CHINA Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group (CRSSD) is conducting a preliminary study of a planned 1754km high-speed line in India linking Delhi, Bhopal, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Chennai which it hopes to complete by August.

THE merger between China's two largest train builders, CNR and CSR, has been approved by China's Securities Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Commerce, and according to Xinhua the process could be completed by June.

THE prime minister of the Czech Republic Mr Bohuslav Sobotka and the mayor of Prague Mrs Adriana Krnáčová officially opened the latest addition to Prague's metro network on April 6, when they took an inaugural trip on the 6.1km western extension of Line A from Dejvická to Nemocnice Motol.

ARGENTINA's Train of the Clouds was revived on April 4, when the Salta provincial government took over operation of the tourist service.

THE first KZ4AT four-axle passenger locomotive for Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) entered service on the Astana – Kokshetau route at the end of March.

AMTRAK's Cascades service between Portland and Eugene will end if Oregon's state legislature enacts the budget adopted by its Joint Ways and Means Committee last week, which proposes slashing funding for the daily state-backed service on the corridor.

THALES has been awarded a €17m contract to supply signalling, telecommunications, and an Operational Control Centre for the Danhai light rail line in New Taipei City.

ITALIAN State Railways (FS) engineering subsidiary Italferr has been awarded a contract by Consorzio Metro Linea 2, the PPP contractor building the second metro line in the Peruvian capital Lima, to provide engineering coordination and integration services for the project.

INDIAN Railways (IR) has confirmed that it will select one of two Japanese suppliers within the next few months for a contract to supply 200 electric freight locomotives for use on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) from Delhi to Mumbai.

AFTER several false starts, Portugal's Council of Ministers approved a revised plan for the privatisation of state-owned railfreight operator CP Carga and Railway Equipment Maintenance Company (EMEF) on March 26.