THE Australian Capital Territory (Act) government has awarded a $A 710m ($US 515.4m) public-private partnership (PPP) contract to the Canberra Metro consortium to build, operate and maintain the initial 12km phase of Canberra's light rail network from Gungahlin to the city centre.

GERMAN Rail (DB) confirmed following an extraordinary meeting of its supervisory board in Berlin on May 4 that it will proceed with the sale of a minority stake in its international passenger business Arriva and logistics subsidiary DB Schenker, while DB Mobility Logistics (DB ML) will be merged the holding company DB AG.

THE first of six Škoda Transportation type 109E electric locomotives ordered by German Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Regio in June 2013 for high-speed regional services in Bavaria has begun dynamic testing at the VUZ Velim test track in the Czech Republic.

GERMAN Rail (DB) has awarded Icomera, Sweden, a contract to rollout onboard Wi-Fi on its fleet of 260 ICE trains currently in service and ICE 4 trains, which are gradually being introduced over the next few years.

CENTRAL Saxony Transport Authority (ZVMS) has confirmed it intends to directly award a contract for the operation of the Erzgebirge Diesel Network to incumbent operator DB Regio.

GERMAN private operator BahnTouristikExpress (BTE) will introduce car-carrying overnight services from Hamburg to Lörrach in December 2016.

Commercial operations officially began on the UAE's inaugural main line railway at the start of the year. Kevin Smith spoke exclusively with Shadi Malak, acting CEO of Etihad Rail DB, and Niko Warbanoff, CEO of DB International, about the challenges of operating this remarkable line.

GERMAN Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Regio has awarded Alstom a €40m contract to supply eight Coradia Lint DMUs for the Central Franconia regional network around Nuremberg.

COMPETITION continues to erode German Rail's dominance of the German regional rail market, according to a report published in March by German Federation of Regional Passenger Rail Authorities (BAG-SPNV).

AS part of a restructuring of Railroad Development Corporation's (RDC) German passenger rail business, two former German Rail (DB) managers will join the supervisory board of RDC Deutschland on April 1.