RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) began selling tickets on May 6 for its new Moscow - Nizhniy Novgorod Strizh (Swift) services, which will be launched on June 1 using RZD's new fleet of Talgo coaches and EP 20 electric locomotives.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has selected a consortium led by Mosgiprotrans and including Nizhegorodmetroproekt and China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group (CREEC) to provide preliminary surveys and design for the proposed Moscow - Kazan high-speed line.

RUSSIA's prime minister Mr Dmitry Medvedev has instructed the minister of transport Mr Maxim Sokolov to remove all obstacles to allow the start of construction of the Russian section of a rail link across the Amur River to China by May 5.

THE German rail industry achieved a 25% increase in revenue last year to €12.5bn, with domestic orders rising 26% from €5.3bn to €6.7bn and exports increasing by 23% from €4.7bn to €5.8bn. The results were announced on April 14 at the annual press conference of the German Rail Industry Association (VDB) in Berlin.

GORAIL, the only operator of regular passenger services between Estonia and Russia, has announced it will withdraw all of its remaining cross-border services next month.

MOSCOW tram operator Mosgortrans has begun four months of trials using a prototype V853000M Metelica low-floor LRV supplied by the Stadler Minsk joint venture of Stadler Rail and Belkommunmash, Belarus.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) issued an invitation to tender on March 16 for a contract to carry out engineering design, project planning, and alignment studies for the 770km Moscow – Kazan high-speed line.

ST PETERSBURG Metro has awarded OOO Vagonmaš, the Russian subsidiary of Škoda Transportation, a Roubles 3.8bn ($US 61m) contract to supply eight six-car trains for metro Line 3.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has begun six months of trials with the first of 32 diesel locomotives being supplied by Sinara for the 1067mm-gauge network on the Pacific island of Sakhalin.

RUSSIAN airport express operator Aeroexpress has announced it will withdraw its operations in the cities of Kazan and Vladivostok to focus solely on serving the three main airports in the Moscow region.