FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) announced on April 25 that it is bidding jointly with Virgin and Stagecoach for Britain’s West Coast Partnership (WCP) franchise, which encompasses inter-city services on the West Coast Main Line and the initial phase of operations on High-Speed 2 (HS2).

A contract worth around Yuan 2.51bn ($US 364.5m) has been awarded to CRRC Qingdao Sifang for a fleet of 11 eight-car trains with a design speed of 350km/h to operate on the 142.3km Jakarta - Bandung high-speed line which is due to open in 2019.

FIVE groups from Europe and Asia have applied to the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) to qualify to bid for its “early train operator” tender. The winner will work alongside CHSRA on the design, development and procurement of the high-speed rail service, with a view to a franchise agreement.

AN engineering, procurement and construction contract for the 142.3km Jakarta - Bandung high-speed line was signed in the Indonesian capital on April 4 in the presence of China’s ambassador to Indonesia Mr Xie Feng.

GERMAN Rail (DB) and Siemens have agreed terms to further amend a contract originally signed in 2011 for 85 10-car and 45 seven-car 250km/h ICE 4 trains.

THE European Union’s (EU) Transforming Transport big data research project, which was launched in January and runs through to June 30 2019, is preparing to launch a rail pilot project in Spain as one of 13 pilot schemes in Europe covering all modes of transport.

EUROSTAR, which operates high-speed services between Britain and mainland Europe, says improvements in performance and the trading environment reported at the end of 2016 have continued in the first 10 weeks of this year.

CONSTRUCTION of the 331km high-speed line between China’s eastern cities of Hangzhou and Wenzhou began on March 9.

THE Dutch court for social economic law has ruled that the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure's decision to award a direct concession to Netherlands Railways (NS) to operate HSL-South was legal.