The Ministry of Transport has appointed Japan Railway Technical Service (Jarts) and Yachiyo Engineering to conduct a pre-feasibility study for a public-private partnership scheme to build a 144km 210km/h line between Jakarta and Bandung.

Trains using the existing 1067mm-gauge line take around 3 hours to complete the 173km trip.

GUILLAUME Pepy, president of French National Railways (SNCF), today marked the completion of 10 years of work when he inaugurated the rebuilt St Lazare station in Paris. With 1600 trains and 450,000 passengers a day, St Lazare is the second busiest station in France.

THE Israeli government unanimously approved on February 5 the construction of a 350km line to connect the Gulf of Aqaba port of Eilat with the Mediterranean port of Ashdod south of Tel Aviv.

THE Thai cabinet has approved track-doubling of the main line linking Bangkok, Khon Kaen and Nong Khai near the Laos border, and has endorsed a project to build a new line from Khon Kaen to Nakhon Phanom in the northeast of Thailand.

THE higher committee of Kuwait's Partnerships Technical Bureau (PTB) has approved the feasibility study for Kuwait City's proposed metro network, and will invite expressions of interest (EOI) soon for the systems and rolling stock contract.

THE government of New South Wales has stepped in with a $A 175m ($US 186m) bailout of the troubled $A 3.6bn Reliance Rail public-private partnership (PPP) in an attempt to secure the delivery of 78 Waratah emus for Sydney's City Rail network.

Mumbai is one of the world's largest cities and India's commercial core, but it has trailed behind Delhi in terms of metro development. However, the finishing touches are now being added to the first line and work is progressing rapidly on two more, as Jagdish Kumar explains.

SOUTH Africa's Department of Transport has established a steering committee to oversee the development of the country's four proposed high-speed lines, together with an investor unit which will market the public-private partnership (PPP) projects.

IRJ at BCN Rail: SPAIN's secretary of state for transport Mr Isaías Táboas Suárez says that the days of the government entirely funding Spain's rail projects are over. Speaking today at the opening session of BCN Rail in Barcelona, Táboas says it is essential that new funding models are found to complete the nation's railway infrastructure projects. "Spain has allocated Euros 8bn in the 21st century to Renfe and Euros 54bn for rail infrastructure to the Ministry of Public Works," Táboas says. "We have made huge investments but these cannot be repeated in the coming years."