GERMAN Rail (DB) has admitted its plans to launch ICE high-speed services from London to Cologne and Frankfurt are now seriously delayed, and the service is unlikely to be launched before the end of the decade.

DB Schenker Rail celebrated the operation of the 500th 835m-long freight train between Germany and Scandinavia on February 18.

THE number of passengers using high-speed services between Britain and mainland Europe could increase from just over 10 million in 2013 to nearly 13.5 million by 2020, according to a study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for Eurotunnel.

DB Fernverkehr, German Rail's (DB) inter-city operating subsidiary, and the German state of Baden-Württemberg, have reached an agreement to introduce an hourly double-deck inter-city service on the Stuttgart - Zurich main line from December 2017.

GERMANY's Federal Cartel Office announced on January 30 that it has launched an investigation into German Rail (DB) following allegations that it has abused its dominant position in ticket sales and distribution for rail passenger services.

GERMAN Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Regio NRW unveiled the first of 56 class 620 Alstom Coradia Lint dmus for the Cologne Diesel Network regional concession on January 15 with an inaugural run from Cologne Main Station to Cologne Deutz.

ANOTHER European-loading-gauge freight service began running between mainland Europe and Britain on January 13, when DB Schenker Rail UK launched a new regular intermodal working from the Silla terminal near Valencia in Spain, to Barking in East London.

DB Networks and local authorities in Bavaria are set to begin planning work for the electrification the 147km line from Munich East to Mühldorf and Freilassing.

ARRIVA's Czech rail subsidiary Arriva Vlaky withdrew its open-access suburban service between Prague Masarykovo and Kralupy nad Vltavou on December 13, just three months after the start of operations.

THE Railway Research Institute (VUZ), Czech Republic, has issued Evraz, Russia, with a TSI compliance certificate for 920mm-diameter type BA 318 rolled railway wheels thereby allowing Evraz to start supplying these wheels to the European market.