NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) has awarded Bombardier a contract to supply 19 Traxx F140 MS multi-system electric locomotives to operate Dutch domestic services on HSL South following the cancellation of its order for AnsaldoBreda V250 trains.

SWISS transport minister Mrs Doris Leuthard launched the first official test train into the 57km Gotthard Base Tunnel on December 16, marking the 900-day countdown to the completion of the project, which is scheduled for December 2016.

DEDICATED Freight Corridor Corporation of India has qualified four bidders for electrical and signalling works on the 343km Bhaupur - Khurja section of the 1829km Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) which will eventually link Ludhiana with Dadri near Delhi and Dankuni near Kolkata.

SWEDISH transport authority Trafikverket has selected Nexans as its primary supplier of railway infrastructure cables in a €16m, two-year framework contract which could be extended for another two years from 2016.

UKRAINIAN Railways (UZ) received the first three type 2ES10 twin-section electric locomotives on December 16 from Ural Locomotives, a joint venture of Sinara, Russia, and Siemens.

THE Spanish Government last week approved the splitting of Adif into two separate bodies in order to avoid the infrastructure manager's spiralling debt from being included in the national debt, in accordance with recent changes to the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010).

AN important gap in the Munich tram network was finally filled on December 15 with the opening of the 1km western extension of Line 19 to the mainline station in Pasing.

PUGET Sound regional transport authority, Sound Transit, has awarded Wabtec a $US 34m contract to design, supply and install Positive Train Control (PTC) on the 132km Sounder commuter rail network around Seattle.

THE European Commission (EC) has adopted the seven-year €1bn Shift2Rail public-private partnership (PPP) research project designed to increase passenger and freight traffic within the European Union.

THE 1.4km western extension of Athens metro Line 3 from Egaleo to Aghia Marina was officially opened on December 13 by Greece's deputy minister of infrastructure, transport, and networks Mr Michalis Papadopolous.