THE stations and connections division of French National Railways (SNCF) has signed a research and exchange agreement with MIT Senseable City Lab, United States, to improve station comfort.

ACCORDING to a report published by SCI Verkehr, Germany, all types of rail traffic are expected to grow up to 2025, building on the growth already achieved since 2005. The strongest growth is expected in urban rail, followed by mainline passenger and freight.

GERMAN Rail (DB) has told IRJ it has no plans to launch ICE services from Frankfurt to London in 2020, contrary to reports in the British media, but says it still sees potential for the route in the medium-term.

ITALIAN State Railways’ (FS) engineering subsidiary Italferr has awarded a €397m contract to a consortium comprising Salini Impregilo (60%) and Astaldi (40%) for the design and construction of the Naples - Cancello section of the Naples - Bari line in Italy, which will have a maximum speed of 200km/h..

CHINA Railway Corporation (CRC) has awarded a contract for the supply of 18 eight-car CRH1 A-A new generation high-speed trains to Bombardier’s Chinese joint venture, Bombardier Sifang Transportation (BST).

FRENCH president Mr François Hollande attended an inauguration ceremony at Villognon in the southwestern department of Charente on February 28 to mark the official completion of infrastructure on the Sud Europe Atlantique high-speed line from Tours to Bordeaux.

AN order for 15 additional TGV Euroduplex Océane sets was approved by the board of French National Railways (SNCF) passenger subsidiary SNCF Mobility at a meeting in Paris on February 23.

THE first phase of High-Speed 2 cleared its final legal hurdle on February 23 when the Hybrid Bill authorising construction received Royal Assent, becoming an Act of Parliament.

SINGAPORE’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on February 16 that it, along with MyHSR Corporation has appointed a consortium comprising WSP Engineering Malysia, Mott MacDonald Malaysia and Ernst & Young Advisory Services as joint development partner for the Singapore - Kuala Lumpur high-speed project.

ALSTOM has begun approval testing in Germany for the fleet of 20 class ED250 Pendolino trains supplied to Polish long distance operator PKP Intercity in 2014.