BRITISH infrastructure manager Network Rail announced on January 12 that it has awarded Carillion Powerlines a £49m contract to electrify the Shotts line between Holytown Junction, east of Glasgow, and Midcalder Junction, west of Edinburgh.

UZBEKISTAN Railways (UTY) reached another milestone in its electrification programme at the end of December when 25kV 50Hz ac catenary was energised on the 90km Dehkanabad - Qarshi section of the Tashkent - Samarkand - Termez line.

CZECH minister of Transport Mr Dan Ťok confirmed on December 20 that the government will advance a project to convert the country’s existing 1796km 3kV dc electric network to 25kV ac in order to standardise Czech mainlines.

ALSTOM and Colas Rail have secured a contract to provide power supply equipment for Nice light rail Line T2, which is due to open in 2018.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) announced on December 13 that it has agreed a contract with Iranian Islamic Republic Railways (RAI) to electrify the 495km Garmsar - Inche Burun line in northern Iran.

ITALY’s Committee for Economic Planning (Cipe) has granted €59m for the electrification of the 97km Valsugana railway between Bassano del Grappa and Trento.

A ceremony was held in the German state of Baden-Württemberg on November 11 to mark the start of electrification works on the 17km Schönbuch Railway from Böblingen to Dettenhausen.

BRITAIN’s Rail Minister Mr Paul Maynard MP announced on November 8 that after scrutiny from the Hendy review, he and the Department for Transport (DfT) have decided to defer four key elements of the troubled Great Western Main Line (GWML) electrification programme.

LATVIAN Railways (LDZ) and the Latvian Ports Transport and Logistics Council have unveiled a plan to expand the electrified network from 257km to 839km and replace all existing dc electrification with ac equipment.

INDIA’s Ministry of Railways has awarded Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) a Rs 8.89bn ($US 133m) contract to electrify four lines totalling 761 route-km as part of a programme to electrify 24,000km of the Indian Railways (IR) network over the next five years.