IRANIAN Islamic Republic Railways (RAI) has awarded Italferr, the engineering subsidiary of Italian State Railways (FS), a contract worth around €12m to provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for the development of Iran’s first high-speed line.

DAEGU City announced on December 13 that it had completed the basic design of the new Seodaegu KTX station to be built in western Daegu after it was approved by the Korean Ministry of Land Transportation.

MALAYSIAN prime minister Mr Najib Razak and his Singaporean counterpart Mr Lee Hsien Loong witnessed the signing of a bilateral agreement at the Malayisan prime minister’s retreat in Putrajaya on December 13, which commits the two countries to complete the Kuala Lumpur - Singapore high-speed line within a decade.

THE first Alstom TGV 2N2 Euroduplex Atlantique trains for France’s Sud Europ Atlantique high-speed line entered commercial service on December 11, when French secretary of state for transport Mr Alain Vidalies and Mrs Florence Parly, executive director of Voyages SNCF welcomed passengers aboard the first service, the 09.28 Paris Montparnasse - Toulouse Matabiau.

KORAIL subsidiary Supreme Railways launched commercial services on the Suseo high-speed line on December 9, providing a much-needed rail link for the south-eastern areas of Seoul and Gyeonggi province under the Super Rapid Train (SRT) brand.

ONTARIO Teachers’ Pension Plan and Borealis Infrastructure, Canada, announced on December 8 that they are considering selling their 30-year concession to own, operate and manage Britain’s 109km High-Speed 1 (HS1) link between London St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel.

THE Italian Authority for Communication Guarantees (Agcom) has launched investigations into NTV and Trenitalia amid allegations of discriminatory activities.

Italy is still the only country in the world where a private open-access operator competes with the state-owned incumbent on its high-speed network. As Andrea Giuricin, CEO of TRA Consulting and strategic advisor to NTV explains, competition has given passengers more choice and high-quality services, even if it hasn’t been plain sailing for the newcomer.

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) will introduce on December 1 a new online compensation scheme for passengers whose journeys on TGV or inter-city services are delayed by 30 minutes or more.

COMMERCIAL operations began on the first high-speed line to serve China’s Three Gorges region on November 28 with the opening of the 247km Chongqing - Wanzhou line.