A CEREMONY was held at Houston's Downtown Transit Center on January 7 to mark the entry into passenger service of Houston MetroRail's new fleet of 39 H3 LRVs, which are being supplied by CAF USA.

MPK Lodz signed a Zlotys 166m ($US 45.8m) contract with Pesa on December 30 for 22 low-floor LRVs, which will be used on the Polish city's 120km metre-gauge tram network.

GORAIL, the only operator of regular passenger services between Estonia and Russia, has announced it will cut its daily Tallinn – St Petersburg train back to just two return services per week next month.

GUANGZHOU Metro Corporation has awarded Thales a contract through its Thales Saic Transportation local joint venture to supply communications-based train control (CBTC) for two new metro lines in the city.

NORFOLK Southern (NS) has released the first of 25 low-emissions GP33ECO heavy shunting locomotives from its Juniata Locomotive Shop at Altoona, Pennsylvania, for mainline testing.

CALIFORNIA marked the official start of construction on the state's high-speed network on January 6 with a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the future high-speed station in Fresno.

BLS, Switzerland, announced on January 6 that it has reached an agreement with German Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Schweiz Holding, part of DB Schenker Rail, to buy back its 45% stake in BLS Cargo for an undisclosed sum.

FOLLOWING several years of decline in the wake of the global economic crisis, passenger numbers on Ireland's railway network are finally growing again according to the latest figures from Irish Rail (IE), which show overall ridership increased by 2.5% in 2014 to 37.6 million journeys.

INDIA's first CBTC deployment reached an important milestone on December 30 with the first test run under Automatic Train Operation (ATO) on the 8km eastern section of Hyderabad metro Line 3 between Nagole and Mettuguda.