TRACKLAYING at the new Lodz Fabryczna station is well underway with 2km of the required 12.5km of track now in place for the station, which is set to become the hub of regional and long-distance railway services in the Polish city and a key interchange in the proposed Warsaw - Lodz - Poznan Y line high-speed network.

POLISH infrastructure manger PKP PLK has awarded has awarded a consortium of Bombardier and Krakowskie Zaklady Automatyki, Poland, a Zlotys 210m ($US 56.5m) contract to install new signalling equipment on the Rawicz - Czempin section of the Wroclaw - Poznan line.

MZKT, the municipal public transport operator in the Polish city of Toruń, has awarded Pesa Bydgoszcz a Zlotys 37.8m ($US 10.2m) contract to supply five bi-directional Swing low-floor LRVs for the city's metre-gauge tram network.

WARSAW Tramways has taken delivery of the first of 30 type 134N Jazz low-floor LRVs from Pesa, which will be used on lower-density routes in the city.

WARSAW celebrated the opening of its second metro line on March 8 when the city's mayor Mrs Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz launched a day of free rides on the initial 6.5km section of the east-west Line M2 from Dworzec Wileński with Rondo Daszyńskiego.

Despite the recent launch of a new premium express service intended to draw traffic back to rail, these are turbulent times for Poland's national long-distance passenger operator. Andrew Goltz considers the reasons behind declining traffic and looks at potential solutions to the problem.

GENESEE & Wyoming (G&W) announced on February 24 that it has agreed to acquire a 95% stake in Britain's Freightliner Group from Arcapita and other shareholders for $US 755m in cash.

KRAKOW Transport Authority (MPK) began three months of trial operation with a Solaris Tramino low-floor LRV on February 23 to evaluate the performance of a vehicle equipped with a supercapacitor energy storage system on the city's standard-gauge tram network.

REGIONAL transport authorities in Germany and Poland have announced direct cross-border passenger services between Dresden and Wroclaw will be withdrawn on March 1, even though a four-year operating contract only began last year.

POLISH infrastructure manager PKP has commissioned WYG Consulting to carry out a feasibility study of the electrification and modernisation of approximately 100km of the Lublin - Stalowa Wola line in southeast Poland.