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.

BELGIUM's infrastructure manager Infrabel has awarded a joint venture of Siemens and Cofely Fabricom, Belgium, a €510m contract to rollout ETCS Level 2 on 36% of the Belgian network.

BELGIAN National Railways (SNCB) has awarded Alstom a contract worth around €70m to supply and maintain ETCS Level 2 onboard equipment for five fleets of multiple units totalling 449 trains.

THE first of the V250 Fyra high-speed trains rejected by Netherlands Railways (NS) began its journey from Watergraafsmeer yard in Amsterdam back to the AnsaldoBreda plant in Pistoia, Italy, on September 7.

INTERNATIONAL high-speed operator Thalys enjoyed continued revenue growth in the first half of this year with increasing ridership on its core routes from Paris to Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne and the successful launch of Amsterdam – Lille services in April.

THE CEO of French National Railways (SNCF) long-distance subsidiary SNCF Voyages Mrs Barbara Dalibard announced on July 8 that a direct TGV service will be launched between Strasbourg and Brussels following the completion of the second phase of TGV Est in 2016.

THE municipal government of The Hague and Arriva have abandoned plans to launch an open-access cross-border service linking the Dutch city with Brussels, which was due to begin operating in December 2015.

BELGIAN infrastructure manager Infrabel has started test operations in the newly-completed Liefkenshoek rail tunnel in the port of Antwerp the final phase of the project before the launch of commercial operations in December.

NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) is to rebrand its NS Hispeed operations NS International from June 15 as the operator seeks to restore the image of its high-speed operations following the Fyra crisis.

BELGIAN light rail operator De Lijn has awarded Bombardier a contract worth around €6m to carry out heavy overhauls on 20 metre-gauge trams, which are used on the 68km coastal tramway between Knokke and De Panne.