SWEDISH national passenger operator SJ and Arriva have awarded Alstom rolling stock maintenance contracts covering 82 regional trains in Sweden.

CATALONIA Government Railways (FGC) is celebrating the entry of the first two of seven new three-car class 114 trains purchased from a CAF-Alstom consortium for its standard-gauge Barcelona Metro line L7, which runs 7km from Plaça Catalunya to Avinguda Tibidabo.

THE Russian government will allocate Russian Railways (RZD) Roubles 6bn ($US 108.3m) from the 2015 federal budget for the 770km Moscow - Kazan high-speed project.

THE government of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) says four private sector consortia have submitted formal expressions of interest for the Capital Metro light rail project in Canberra.

ESER, a group of Turkish companies, has handed back the 243km Port Harcourt – Enugu line to Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC) following the completion of a project to upgrade the southern section of the main line to Kaduna.

PASSENGER Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has announced further drastic cuts to its mainline train timetable even as it pushes ahead with a €250m deal to buy 70 new locomotives from Vossloh.

TOLL Group, Australia, announced on December 22 that it has divested its 55% share in the Toll Royal Railway concession to its joint venture partner, Royal Group, Cambodia.

GREATER Wellington Regional Council has finalised the short-list for its new suburban railway contract, which covers operations on the three primary north-south corridors into the city centre, and is based on a new performance-based partnering contract model.

TRACK laying has started on Israel's 60km Valley Line linking Haifa with Sheikh Hussain bridge over the River Jordan where it will eventually be connected to the Jordanian rail network.

CONSTRUCTION of the 857km link from Guiyang to Guangzhou, the first high-speed line in China's southwest karst region, was completed on December 21, with test operations set to begin by the end of this week.