THE Indonesian government has scrapped a project to build a high-speed line between Jakarta and Bandung disappointing Japanese and Chinese bidders that were competing for the $US 5bn project. However, the government has left the door open for a new main line between the two cities.

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) has announced plans to triple the number of routes operated its Ouigo low-cost high-speed subsidiary next year.

A Girona court this week finally granted TP Ferro, the build-operate concessionaire for the high-speed line between Figueres, Spain, and Perpignan, France, protection from creditors and placed the company under receivership. Despite the administration procedure, the company says that passenger and freight services will continue to operate as normal on the 44.3km line until at least March 2016.

Station design is one of five core elements of the Nodes research project. Richard Booth, scheme development manager at Britain's West Midlands transport authority Centro, who led the design element of the project, and Caroline Hoogendoorn, the International Public Transport Association's (UITP) Nodes coordinator, reflect on Nodes achievements at improving interchange design.

BOMBARDIER announced on September 2 that its Bombardier Sifang Transportation (BST) Chinese joint venture has secured a Yuan 2.4bn ($US 381m) contract to supply 15 additional CRH380D high-speed trains to China Railway Corporation (CRC).

RAIL will remain Spain's transport priority according to the draft budget for 2016 which allocates more than half of spending to rail projects with a special focus on completing the extensive high-speed network.

THE Regional Transportation Council (RTC) for north-central Texas has allocated $US 4.5m to fund the planning, design, and preliminary engineering for the construction of a high-speed rail link between Dallas and Fort Worth.

CHINA is to construct a second high-speed line between Fuzhou and Zhangzhou, but with a design speed of 350km/h rather than the 250km/h design speed of the existing line which opened in 2010 and is now very busy with trains operating in excess of 100% occupancy.

CHINA launched passenger services on its most northerly high-speed line on August 17 with the start of commercial operations on the Harbin - Qiqihar line in Heilongjiang province.

A new ballastless track system developed by French engineers is designed to reduce the initial capital required for slab track and deliver better life-cycle costs than ballasted track. As Keith Barrow reports, NBT is now on test in Russia, where it will be subjected to high axleloads and extreme temperatures.