SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) will spend around SFr 1.5bn ($US 1.66bn) on revamping stations, modernising infrastructure and acquiring new rolling stock for Ticino, Switzerland's southernmost canton by 2020.

SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) has exercised options with Stadler for 19 additional Kiss double-deck EMUs for the Zürich S-Bahn network and six single-deck Flirt EMUs, which will be used on regional services in the canton of Vaud in western Switzerland.

SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) has awarded Harsco a SFr 100m ($US 113m) contract to supply 59 catenary maintenance and renewal vehicles, which will replace older units and expand the fleet to meet future maintenance requirements.

ALSTOM handed over the first of eight additional ETR 610 Pendolino EMUs to Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) at its Savigliano plant in northern Italy on June 3.

TESTS of on-board functionality of ETCS Baseline 3, conducted on an operational line fitted with Baseline 2 ETCS in Switzerland during the second half of April, have successfully demonstrated the backward compatibility of the two versions of software, says Siemens.

SWISS Federal Railways' (SBB) long-awaited announcement on the winner of its tender for new EC 250 international trains for the Gotthard route was finally made on May 9, when it was revealed that Stadler Rail will supply the fleet of 29 250km/h EMUs.

With passenger traffic having topped one million passengers a day for the first time and the railfreight sector back in profit after decades of losses, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) appears to be on a roll.

TRIAL operations have begun on Zürich's new Durchmesserlinie (DML) cross-city link, which is due to open on June 15, with a total of 60 test trains passing through the new Löwenstrasse station beneath Zürich's existing main station over the weekend of April 12-13.

SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) has completed a five-year project to renovate its fleet of 232 EuroCity passenger coaches at a cost of SFr 160m.

SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) has placed an order worth over SFr 50m ($US 56.9m) for 485 new freight wagons from Žos Trnava, Slovakia.