FOLLOWING a public tender, Rheinland Local Transport, in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia, has awarded German Rail (DB Regio) a four-year concession to operate Euregiobahn Line RB 20 in the Aachen area.

German Rail (DB) has launched a major restructuring of its organisation and a reduction in its management team in the wake of an 18.2% drop in Ebit for the first half of 2015, and a 39% fall in after-tax profit from €642m to €391m, reports David Briginshaw.

GERMAN infrastructure manager DB Networks has purchased a licence from Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) to operate its Rail Control System (RCS) traffic management solution on its 33,000km network from 2019.

GERMAN Rail (DB) has appointed Ms Birgit Bohle as CEO of its long-distance passenger subsidiary with effect from September 1.

GERMAN Rail (DB) and the European Railway Industry Association (Unife) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to advance the International Railway Industry Standard (Iris) with the goal of improving the quality and reliability of products and better fulfilling customer requirements.

The infrastructure pillar of Europe's Shift2Rail research programme promises a raft of innovations aimed at improving resilience and reducing costs. Professor Andy Doherty, chief rail technology officer with Network Rail and chairman of the European Rail Research Advisory Council, outlined the aspirations for this major initiative at the recent VDEI track conference in Münster, Germany.

BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure confirmed on August 10 that it has selected DB Regio as preferred bidder for a concession to operate the so-called Gäu-Murr regional network.

GERMANY's Vossloh Group has reported an 11% increase in revenue and a 62.3% jump in Ebit for the first half of 2015 despite a drop in sales of rail fastenings.

GERMAN Rail (DB) has launched a major restructuring of its organisation and a reduction in its management team in the wake of an 18.2% drop in Ebit for the first half of 2015, and a 39% fall in after-tax profit from €642m to €391m.

THE German government is preventing effective competition on the country's railway network to the benefit of German Rail (DB) and to the detriment of existing and potential competitors, according to the findings of a report by the German Monopolies Commission published on July 22.