THALYS, which operates high-speed services between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne and Essen, will become an independent company on March 31 2015 for the first time since it was set up as a purely commercial entity in 1996.

CHINA Railway Corporation (CRC) confirmed on November 5 that commercial operations will begin on November 16 on the first section of high-speed line in the western region of Xinjiang Uygar.

THE Mexican government announced on November 3 that a consortium of Chinese and Mexican companies has been selected for a turnkey contract to design, build, operate and maintain the country's first high-speed line.

ITALIAN open-access high-speed operator NTV says it is likely to lay off up to 248 staff – a quarter of its workforce – as part of a major restructuring plan for the company, which was presented to trade unions on October 30.

CALIFORNIA High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) says it received three sealed bids on October 30 for the contract to construct the second section of the state's high-speed network.

CONSTRUCTION of the first phase of JR Central's Chuo Shinkansen maglev project linking Tokyo and Nagoya has been approved by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT).

EIFFAGE Group has appointed Keymile to install the telecommunications system on the 182km high-speed line it is constructing between Le Mans and Rennes under a public-private-partnership deal to build and operate the line which was awarded by French Rail Network (RFF) in 2011.

AFTER years of political wrangling, plans to build a standard-gauge high-speed line linking the Baltic States with Poland reached an important milestone on October 28 when the governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania signed an agreement to create a joint venture company, RB Rail, to implement the project.

FRANCE will need to consider reducing the number of stations served by TGV services if the network is to stand any chance of being profitable, according to a report on the finances of TGV, which was published by the French Court of Auditors on October 23.