BRITAIN's Department for Transport (DfT) has approved the acquisition of an additional eight five-car class 377/6 Electrostar emus from Bombardier for the Southern franchise, exercising an option from a contract for 130 vehicles signed in December 2011.

THE Western Australian government has placed an order for an additional five three-car B-series emus from a consortium of Bombardier and Downer EDI, to strengthen the Perth suburban fleet.

CROSSRAIL, which is building a £14.8bn, 118km east-west rail link across London, has awarded a contract worth around £50m to a joint venture of Siemens and Invensys Rail to install a communications-based train control (CBTC) system on the busy central section of the line.

BOMBARDIER today broke ground on the construction of a new bogie production site in Siegen, Germany.

SWEDEN's national passenger operator, SJ, will take delivery this weekend of the last of 20 class X55 four-car emus from Bombardier.

MARYLAND Board of Public Works has awarded Bombardier Transportation a $US 205m service contract to operate Maryland Area Regional Commuter (Marc) commuter rail services on the Camden (Baltimore Camden - Washington DC) and Brunswick (Martinsburg - Washington DC) lines from June 2013.

THE first of 24 Flexity Classic LRVs was officially handed over today by Bombardier to Krakow Transport Authority (MPK) in the presence of the city's mayor Mr Jacek Majchrowski. This follows the unveiling of this new design at InnoTrans in Berlin in September.

THE first of 73 three-car Bombardier Movia C951 driverless metro trains for Singapore's Downtown Line was unloaded today at the port of Jurong, two weeks ahead of schedule.

THE Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has received seven bids for its Rand 123bn ($US 14.93bn) rolling stock fleet renewal programme (IRJ June p16) for state-owned commuter operator Metrorail.

GERMAN Rail (DB) has placed a €50m order with Bombardier for five more Twindexx Vario double-deck emus.