SPANISH infrastructure manager Adif is inviting bids for a contract to install ERTMS on a 56km stretch of Barcelona's Rodalies suburban rail network in a long-awaited move to increase capacity and improve service reliability.

REGULATORY pressures on Europe's largest railfreight market could drive up operating costs by as much as 20% over the next five years, according to a study by the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV).

NETWORK Rail (NR) has awarded Siemens Rail Automation a contract to develop system architecture and a deployment strategy for the rollout of an ETCS Level 2 overlay on the Great Western Main Line.

POLISH infrastructure manger PKP PLK has awarded has awarded a consortium of Bombardier and Krakowskie Zaklady Automatyki, Poland, a Zlotys 210m ($US 56.5m) contract to install new signalling equipment on the Rawicz - Czempin section of the Wroclaw - Poznan line.

Railway training is following the trend of vocational education training and becoming more international, as Dr Andrew Russell, managing director, Rail Training International, Britain, explains.

Initial reports into the causes of Spain's deadliest train accident, which occurred nearly two years ago in Santiago de Compostela, cited driver error as the sole cause. But now a deeper study of the accident by a judicial investigation says lack of a functioning onboard ETCS system was a crucial factor, as Fernando Puente reports from Madrid.

SPAIN's high-speed network infrastructure manager, Adif AV, has awarded a €29.6m contract to a consortium of Thales and Bombardier to install ETCS Level 1 on the 210km Valencia - Vandellós section of the Valencia - Barcelona Mediterranean Corridor.

SPAIN's infrastructure manager Adif has awarded a €155m contract to a consortium led by CAF Signalling to equip the new Monforte de Cid – Murcia high-speed line with ERTMS Level 2.

BELGIUM's Mobility and Transport Federal Public Services (FPS) has awarded Mott MacDonald a contract to independently review the €2bn national rollout of ETCS currently being implemented by infrastructure manager Infrabel.

THE installation of ERTMS on the Betuweroute dedicated freight line between the port of Rotterdam and the German border was finally completed on December 8, when the section between Zevenaar, Netherlands, and Emmerich, Germany, switched to ETCS from the legacy Dutch ATB train protection system.