CHINA Railway Corporation (CRC), the state-owned body that has assumed responsibility for the former Ministry of Railways commercial activities, has announced a plan to raise fixed-asset investment to Yuan 660bn ($US 97.88bn) this year to boost railway construction.

ITALIAN rolling stock manufacturer AnsaldoBreda announced on August 1 that it has filed an appeal against the verdict of the Court of Justice in Utrecht, which ruled on July 3 that Netherlands Railways (NS) and Belgian National Railways (SNCB) will not be required to disclose three technical reports commissioned prior to the cancellation of their orders for V250 Fyra trains.

A concerted effort by Korail to improve safety management and reduce train failures and human error has been hailed a major success. As Lee Min-cheor of Korail's International Cooperation Department explains, the performance of flagship high-speed services has improved markedly.

THE CEO of Malaysia's Land Public Transport Commission (Spad), Mr Mohd Nur Kamal, says he expects tenders to be invited for a high-speed line to link Kuala Lumpur with Singapore by the end of next year. The prime minister of Malaysia Mr Najib Tun Razak and his Singaporean counterpart Mr Lee Hsien Loong pledged in February to complete construction of the railway by 2020.

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) has exercised an option for an additional 40 TGV Euroduplex trains from Alstom which will be delivered between 2015 and 2019.

A Renfe class 730 train derailed on July 24 on the approach to Santiago de Compostela leaving around 80 dead and dozens injured. The train left the tracks entirely at 20.41 on a curve 4km south of Santiago station, where it was due to call.

EUROSTAR announced its first-half figures on July 18, which show sales revenues increased 7% year-on-year to £453m as passenger numbers grew 2% to 4.9 million.

IN an effort to fill the void left by the abandonment of Brussels – Amsterdam Fyra services, Thalys is planning to introduce two additional weekday services to Amsterdam from October 7.

Germany's Aerospace Centre in Göttingen is investigating concepts for the so-called Next Generation Train with a view to developing a very-high-speed double-deck train. Anitra Green visited the centre to see how the project is progressing.

After a quarter of a century of sustained investment, Spain's high-speed network continues to extend its reach to new areas of the country. But with the country in the grip of a devastating economic crisis, plans for further expansion are in a state of flux. Fernando Puente evaluates the prospects of the world's third largest high-speed network.