VALDUNES confirmed on April 3 that its management has received permission to place the company into receivership, moving from its current safeguard procedure, which the company says is intended to initiate a bidding process for the company and is not the result of insolvency.

TURKISH State Railways (TCDD) has awarded a €10m contract to Thales to modernise the signalling and telecommunications at Eskisehir station.

THE main line linking London, Plymouth and Penzance reopened today following repairs costing £35m to damage caused by major storms in February to the coastal section at Dawlish between Exeter and Plymouth.

THE CEO of Dutch infrastructure manager Prorail, Mrs Marion Gout-van Sinderen, tendered her resignation unexpectedly on April 3.

THE governor of Riyadh Prince Khaled bin Bandar officially launched construction on April 3 of the six-line metro to be built in the Saudi capital.

DANISH State Railways (DSB) has been granted permission to purchase 67 Bombardier double-deck coaches, which it has leased from Luxembourg-based Ascendos since 2002, to avoid what DSB describes as potential capacity problems caused by the continuing unreliability of its IC4 dmus supplied by AnsaldoBreda.

INDONESIA's Panghegar Group and China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CNMIE) have released details of a five-line Rupiah 20 trillion ($US 1.76bn) monorail project for the Indonesian city of Bandung.

SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) has completed a five-year project to renovate its fleet of 232 EuroCity passenger coaches at a cost of SFr 160m.

CHINA's National Development and Reform Commission has announced that freight rates on the new 179km Zhunchi Railway, which is due to open in June, will be determined by the carrier, its clients and investors.

MIDDLE Saxony Transport Association (VMS) has awarded a €150m contract to Alstom to supply 29 Coradia Continental EMUs and maintain the sets for 16 years.