GERMAN Rail's (DB) next-generation long-distance train the ICx made its first appearance on the German mainline network at the end of December, when the first ICx set was hauled from Bombardier's Henningsdorf plant near Berlin to Siemens' Wildenrath test centre in North Rhine Westphalia.

ALGERIA's National Railway Investment Agency (Anesrif) has awarded Estel, a joint venture of Algeria National Railways (SNTF) and Siemens a contract to supply signalling and operations control equipment to upgrade the 90km Beni Mansour - Bejaia line to double-track.

SIEMENS and Tisséo, the operator of the VAL light metro in Toulouse, are to conduct a three-year study of the adhesion of rubber-tyred metro trains with a view to improving their safety.

EUROSTAR announced today at the unveiling of the first of 10 e320 high-speed trains on order from Siemens that it plans to purchase an additional seven trains - the two parties are now negotiating terms for a contract.

SIEMENS has rolled out the first Desiro ML train for Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) which has branded the EMU fleet Cityjet.

BELGIUM's infrastructure manager Infrabel has awarded a joint venture of Siemens and Cofely Fabricom, Belgium, a €510m contract to rollout ETCS Level 2 on 36% of the Belgian network.

PARIS Transport Authority (RATP) has awarded Siemens a €45m contract to supply communications-based train control (CBTC) for the 6km, four-station northern extension of metro Line 14 to Mairie de Saint-Ouen.

Siemens and Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) are currently introducing a new interlocking architecture which incorporates the latest in communications technology. Reto Wagner, head of electronic interlockings and track vacancy detection systems at Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), and Peter Hefti product lifecycle manager, Siemens Switzerland, outline Sinet.

BUENOS Aires metro authority Sbase has selected Siemens in a contract worth €30m to upgrade signalling, the depot operations centre, and to install a new passenger information system for the 5km, nine-station metro Line C.

HYUNDAI Information Technology has awarded Siemens a €20m contract to supply automation and signalling equipment for the 23km Sosa - Wonsi mixed traffic line which is currently under construction in Seoul.