THE NORWEGIAN ministry of transport and communications announced on November 28 that it has asked infrastructure manager Jernbaneverket to prepare a draft development strategy for the rollout of ERTMS across the national network.

COLLECTIVE Transport Production (KTP), the organisation responsible for Oslo's metro, light rail, and bus operations, has awarded Invensys Rail two contracts worth a total of €13.4m.

Norway's government will announce a revised 10-year transport plan and details of several new infrastructure projects in 2013. Kevin Smith spoke with Harald Nikolaisen, Jernbaneverket's director of construction and investments, about what the infrastructure manager has suggested these plans include.

Vossloh Cogifer has developed maintenance-friendly switch machines for use on standard sleepers or in box sleepers, thereby allowing automatic tamping of the trackbed. Their latest application is on two very different railways: a heavy-haul line in northern Sweden and on the recently-completed Ankara - Konya high-speed line in Turkey.

Driver advisory technology can have a significant impact on energy consumption and help to optimise infrastructure capacity. Martin Joborn, senior consultant for Transrail, Sweden, explains how the Cato system has allowed LKAB to generate efficiencies under the most challenging operating conditions.

NORWEGIAN track authority Jernbaneverket has awarded Skanska, Sweden, a NKr 1.36bn ($US 245.6m) contract for the remaining civil works on the 13.4km Holm - Nykirke section of the Vestfold line upgrade project.