SPAIN’s Ministry of Development has started public consultation for the construction of two new high-speed lines to connect with the 180.5km Basque Y network currently under construction linking Bilbao, Vitoria, San Sebastián and the French border.

ITALY’s open-access high-speed rail operator, Italo-NTV, has applied to list its shares on the Italian Equities Market (MTA) of the Italian Stock Exchange.

SPAIN’s prime minister Mr Mariano Rajoy officially inaugurated a 72km extension to the country’s high-speed network from Valencia to Castellón on the Mediterranean Corridor on January 22 ahead of the start of commercial services on January 23.

ITALY’s open-access high-speed operator Italo-NTV achieved a 24.8% jump in operating revenue in 2017 to €454.9m compared with €364.4m in 2016 partly due to a 15.3% in traffic from 11.1 million passengers in 2016 to 12.8 million last year.

CALIFORNIA High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) named Mr Brian Kelly as its new CEO on January 17, the same day it received a new report that found delays and higher-than-expected costs would inflate the price of the project by $US 2.8bn.

Keith Fender, regional editor reports on DBs mixed fortunes.

GERMAN infrastructure manager DB Network has awarded a joint venture of Rhomberg Bahntechnik and Swietelsky Baugesellschaft a contract worth around €250m to install trackwork and infrastructure equipment on the 59.6km Wendlingen - Ulm high-speed line in Baden-Württemberg.

JAPAN’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) have agreed to study the feasibility of raising the maximum line speed in the world’s longest undersea tunnel in a bid to reduce Tokyo - Shin Hakodate Hokuto journey times to less than four hours.

CHINA added nearly 700km to its high-speed network at the end of December with the opening of three new lines.

THALYS announced on December 22 that ridership on its services will exceed seven million in 2017, the first time in the operator’s 20-year history that passenger numbers have reached this figure.