THE Karlsruhe - Basle main line in southwest Germany, one of Europe’s key rail freight arteries, has been closed since August 12 following a major earth movement caused by groundwater entering the construction site of the new 4.27km tunnel being built under Rastatt.
SIEMENS confirmed on August 8 that it has received an order from DB Regio for 57 three-car Mireo EMUs for use on the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn network around Mannheim and Heidelberg.
GERMAN freight operator DB Cargo has signed a framework agreement with Siemens for the delivery of 100 Vectron locomotives.
US intermodal freight company RailRunner launched its first services in Europe on July 31 with the start of a daily flow between Bratislava and Braunschweig.
BAVARIAN minister of transport Mr Joachim Herrmann and Czech transport minister Mr Dan Ťok announced on July 26 that Munich - Prague services will almost double in frequency from December, with aspirations to reduce the journey time from six hours to less than four hours by 2030.
ALSTOM has handed over the first of 26 modernised Coradia Lint 41 regional DMU to Lower Saxony Transport Authority (LNVG) as part of a contract signed earlier this year.
GERMAN Rail (DB) announced on July 26 that it will raise its profit forecast for 2017 amid record ridership on German long-distance services and revenue growth at international subsidiaries Arriva and DB Schenker.
BADEN-Württemberg Ministry of Transport announced on July 24 that Hohenzollern Railways (HzL) and Southwest German Transport (Sweg) will merge on January 2018 following approval of the combination by district councils of Zollernalbkries and Sigmaringen.
HELSINKI Transport (HKL) has leased two of its Variotram low-floor LRVs to Rhine-Neckar Transport (RNV), which will evaluate the vehicles on its tram networks in Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, and Heidelberg.
LEIPZIG launched its new fleet of Solaris Tramino XL low-floor LRVs on July 13, when the first vehicle entered trial passenger service on Line 4 from Gohlis to Stötteritz.
