FRENCH secretary of state for transport Mr Alain Vidalies unveiled the government’s strategy to revive France’s loss-making conventional long-distance services on July 21, but confirmed that more than half of Lunéa overnight trains will be withdrawn in the autumn if an alternative operator cannot be found.

SOUTH Rhineland-Palatinate Regional Rail Authority (ZSPNV-Süd) and the French region of Alsace-Lorraine-Champagne-Ardennes (Grand Est) have reached an agreement with DB Regio and French National Railways (SNCF) to launch a new France-Germany regional service next year.

THE board of Île-de-France transport authority Stif has approved a €2.1bn 15-year plan for the modernisation of the group of Transilien suburban lines east of Paris together with improvements to the eastern section of RER Line E.

THE first of 16 CAF low-floor LRVs for the 11.9km metre-gauge tramway in St Etienne arrived in the French city on July 1.

FRENCH prime minister Mr Manuel Valls joined the mayor of Montpellier Mr Philippe Saurel and Languedoc-Roussillon Midi-Pyrénées regional president Mrs Carole Delga to inaugurate the final 1.2km section of Montpelier Line 4 on July 1, marking the completion of France's first orbital light rail line.

PARIS - Strasbourg journey times were reduced to less than two hours on July 3 with the start of commercial operations on the second 106km phase of TGV Est.

TRANSDEV says it will pull out its Thello French-Italian open-access joint venture with Trenitialia, blaming a combination of engineering work, strengthened border controls, and the terrorist attacks on Paris in November 2015 for lacklustre revenues.

SOCIÉTÉ du Grand Paris (SGP), the public company responsible for managing planning and construction of the €25bn Grand Paris orbital express metro network, says it will issue invitations to tender this week for the first major construction contracts for Line 16.

LOCOMOTIVE leasing company Akiem have signed a framework agreement with Bombardier Transportation for 52 Bombardier Traxx AC and MS electric locomotives, with an initial firm order for 26 units worth €95m.

A total of 57.9 billion urban public transport journeys were made in the European Union (EU) in 2014 according to a study released by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) on June 20, its highest level since 2000.