THE first of 10 diesel-electric locomotives being supplied to All Aboard Florida for its new Brightline inter-city service in Florida has completed initial track testing at the Siemens plant in Sacramento, California, and moved for the first time under its own power.

Siemens will present at InnoTrans a 3D virtual mock-up of its new Mireo articulated lightweight EMU for commuter and regional services. As Keith Fender explains, Mireo will replace Desiro ML as Siemens’ EMU platform for the European market.

THE mayor of San Francisco Mr Ed Lee visited Siemens’ Sacramento plant on August 29 to view the first of 215 S200 SF LRVs for San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).

URAL Locomotives presented the last of 33 ES2G Lastochka EMUs for the Moscow Ring Railway to Central Suburban Passenger Company at Podmoskovnaya depot in Moscow on August 22.

The first private-sector investment in inter-city passenger rail in the United States for well over half a century is underway, with the first trains scheduled to enter service in mid-2017. Mike Reininger, president of All Aboard Florida, talks exclusively to David Briginshaw about this ambitious venture.

NETWORK Rail announced on August 11 that it has awarded a contract to Siemens Rail Automation for the design, construction, testing and commissioning of the Port Talbot West Phase 1 resignalling project on the Cardiff – Swansea section of the South Wales Main Line.

HECTOR Rail, a Swedish open access operator, has signed an agreement with Siemens for the delivery of five new electric Vectron locomotives with an option for 15 more, which is valid until 2021.

A study of fully-automated driverless metros conducted by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) says that the length of such lines is expected to increase from 789km today to 2200km by 2025.

SIEMENS handed over the first class 4744 Desiro ML EMU for Austro-Hungarian operator Györ-Sopron-Ebenfurth Railway (GySEV) in a ceremony at Wulkaprodersdorf in eastern Austria on July 15.

CALGARY Transit's new fleet of Siemens S200 high-floor LRVs entered passenger service on the city's CTrain light rail network on July 5 in time for the annual Calgary Stampede.