TEST running is underway with three 200km/h tilting sets which Talgo is supplying to Russian Railways (RZD) with a view to placing them in service on the Berlin – Moscow route next year.

THE completion of the first phase of Rail Baltica was celebrated in Kaunas, Lithuania, on October 16, when EU transport commissioner Mrs Violeta Bulc joined Lithuanian prime minister Mr Algirdas Butkevičius to inaugurate the standard-gauge link from the Polish border.

LODZ Agglomeration Railway (LKA) has announced plans to expand its network and increase capacity on existing routes by lengthening its fleet of Stadler trains.

A passenger train crossed the Poland - Lithuania border for the first time in 76 years on August 27, when a Polish DMU carried a delegation including Mrs Catherine Trautmann MEP, European co-ordinator for the TEN-T North Sea-Baltic Corridor, on the first completed section of the Rail Baltica standard-gauge line from the Polish border to Lithuania's second city Kaunas.

POLAND marked the completion of its first completely new main line railway for 40 years on August 30 with the inauguration of the Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway (PKM), a 17km non-electrified line linking the cities of Gdansk and Gdynia with Lech Walesa Airport.

KRAKOW Transport Authority (MPK) launched its new fleet of 36 Pesa Krakowiak low-floor LRVs on August 30, when the first vehicles entered service on Line 50.

MPK Wroclaw's new fleet of Pesa Twist low-floor LRVs entered passenger service in the Polish city on August 14, when the first three vehicles were introduced on Line 3.

BELARUSSIAN Railways (BC) in partnership with PKP Intercity is planning to launch a new cross-border Minsk - Warsaw service in December in an effort to improve the attractiveness of its rail services.

POLISH oil company Lotos has announced plans to float its open-access railfreight subsidiary Lotos Kolej on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

THE first of 12 Moderus Beta trams being supplied by Modertrans, Poland, for Silesian Tramways is undergoing tests at the manufacturer's plant in Poznan in preparation for the introduction of the fleet on the standard-gauge network around Katowice this autumn.