BRAUNSCHWEIG Transport (BSVAG) has exercised an option for three additional Tramino low-floor LRVs with Solaris, Poland.

DB Regio introduced new Bombardier class 442 emus built for the Mid-German S-Bahn network around Leipzig on August 18, four months before they were due to enter service.

GERMAN operator Hessen State Railway (HLB) has issued a call for tender for between 20 and 30 emus as part of its planned bid to operate train services on the Main-Neckar-Ried network.

TWO European open-access operators have signed contracts with Siemens for a total of five 15kV ac Vectron locomotives, which will be used on freight services in Germany and Austria.

A ceremony was held in southern Bavaria on July 29 to formally launch the construction of a second track on the 11km Mühldorf – Tussling line.

THE first freight train from Zhengzhou in eastern China to the Billwerder intermodal terminal in Hamburg arrived at its destination on August 2, just 15 days after setting off on its 10,214km journey.

GERMAN Rail (DB), Alstom, the state government of Bavaria, and leasing company DAL launched a joint project on August 1 to trial hybrid traction technology on shunting locomotives in southern Germany.

TRANSPORT authorities in Saxony-Anhalt have published preliminary information for the tendering of regional services on non-electrified lines in German state, the so-called Saxony-Anhalt diesel network.

GERMAN federal transport minister Dr Peter Ramsauer, the first minister of the German state of North Rhine Westphalia Mrs. Hannelore Kraft, and German Rail (DB) CEO Dr Rüdiger Grube signed a €1.5bn agreement in Bonn on July 24 to fund a major upgrade of the 73km line between the Dutch border at Emmerich and Oberhausen.

FIRST half results for Vossloh make grim reading as an additional provision of "double-digit million" euros for damages claimed in a lawsuit involving its Transportation Systems business unit has driven the company into a loss.