THE governments of Britain and China this week signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on rail, paving the way for closer cooperation in railway design, engineering, construction, supply, operation and maintenance, which could include work on Britain's High Speed 2 (HS2) project.

TEST operation began on the first section of high-speed line in China's Xinjiang Uygar Autonomous Region on June 4 with the start of trials on the 300km Urumqi – Shanshan section of the Urumqi – Lanzhou high-speed line.

NINGBO became the 20th Chinese city to operate a metro network on May 30, when trial operation began on the initial 20.9km phase of Line 1 from Gaoqiao West to Donghuan South Road.

CSR Zhuzhou, China, has unveiled what it claims is the world's first 100% supercapacitor-powered low-floor tram.

THE CHINESE city of Wuhan inaugurated the latest addition to its metro network on May 28, when commercial services began running on the 5.7km northern extension of Line 1 from Dijiao to Hankou North.

NIGERIA's Federal Ministry of Transport signed a $US 13.1bn framework contract with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) on May 6 for construction of the 650km coastal railway from Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, to Port Harcourt, Benin City, and Lagos.

THE Chinese premier Li Keqiang and the president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta signed an agreement on May 11 for the construction of a 609km standard-gauge railway linking the port city of Mombasa to the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

CHINA Railway Investment Corporation (CRIC) has published tenders for contracts to supply more than 1000 electric locomotives to China Railway Corporation (CRC).

CONSTRUCTION workers are celebrating connecting the bores of the 16.3km tunnel through the Qilian Mountains in northwest China which is the final part of the project to build the 1776km Lanxin railway from Lanzhou, Gansu province, to Urumqi in Xinjiang.

CHINA Railway Engineering Corporation has started work to electrify the 34.3km two-line light rail network under construction in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.