A ceremony was held at Metz station on September 21 to mark the handover of the first of 10 Alstom Régiolis bi-mode multiple units for the French region of Lorraine.

THE first of 22 Citadis low-floor LRVs being supplied by Alstom as part of the £570m second phase expansion of Nottingham's light rail network was unveiled at Nottingham Express Transit's Wilkinson Street depot on September 13.

TRAMS are set to return to the streets of Tours tomorrow (August 31) when the city officially inaugurates its first 15km, 29-station light rail line, 64 years after its original network closed.

MASS Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA), which owns Bangkok's metro network, has approved construction of the 21.6km Brown Line for an estimated Baht 45bn ($US 1.45bn).

THE FIRST Pendolino set for PKP Intercity was presented to the public and the media at Wroclaw Central station on August 12, while en route from Alstom's Savigliano plant in Italy to the test centre at Żmigród, Poland.

THE Alstom-led Gibela consortium has selected a site at Ekurhuleni in the South African province of Gauteng as the location for a Rand 2bn ($US 201m) rolling stock plant, which will assemble commuter trains for Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).

Cities all over France are investing in light rail infrastructure to ease congestion and improve their urban environment. Bordeaux is entering the third phase of its development programme and Kevin Smith visited the city to see how the work is progressing.

GERMAN Rail (DB), Alstom, the state government of Bavaria, and leasing company DAL launched a joint project on August 1 to trial hybrid traction technology on shunting locomotives in southern Germany.

ARRIYADH Development Authority (ADA) announced the winning bidders on July 28 for three design and build contracts worth almost $US 22.5bn for the construction of a 176.7km six-line automated metro network in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

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.