THE president of SNCF, Mr Guillaume Pepy, and the director-general of Moroccan National Railways (ONCF), Mr Mohamed Rabie Khlie, have agreed to set up a joint company to maintain the fleet of TGV Duplex trains being supplied by Alstom for Morocco's first high-speed line.
ILE-de-France Transport Authority (Stif) and SNCF Mobility have placed a €397m order with Bombardier for 42 Regio 2N double-deck EMUs for delivery starting in September 2017.
FRENCH transport minister Mr Alain Vidalies announced on November 20 that the government will form a commission of politicians and industry experts to develop proposals for the future development of the country's loss-making network of conventional Intercity services.
THE general assembly of the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM) has elected Mr Paul Plummer, group strategy director of Britain's infrastructure manager Network Rail, as president to succeed Mr Gunnar Malm, director general of Trafikverket, Sweden.
THALYS, which operates high-speed services between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne and Essen, will become an independent company on March 31 2015 for the first time since it was set up as a purely commercial entity in 1996.
FRANCE will need to consider reducing the number of stations served by TGV services if the network is to stand any chance of being profitable, according to a report on the finances of TGV, which was published by the French Court of Auditors on October 23.
THE British government has announced plans to sell its 40% stake in cross-Channel high-speed operator Eurostar to help reduce the national debt.
The British Treasury has set a deadline of October 31 for companies to prequalify to purchase the shares and it hopes to select investors during the first quarter of 2015. UBS is advising on the sale.
SPAIN's infrastructure manager Adif reopened the Figueres - Barcelona high-speed line on Saturday evening, five full days after the line was closed following severe flooding in the 7km tunnel below Girona.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on September 18 by the chairman Indian Railways (IR) Mr Arunendra Kumar and the head of China Railway Corporation (CRC) Mr Lu Dongfu for a joint pre-feasibility study into constructing a high-speed line.
THE FRENCH region of Aquitaine marked the entry into service of its new fleet of class Z 55500 Regio 2N double-deck EMUs on September 15, when regional president Mr Alain Rousset officially launched the fleet in a ceremony at Bordeaux Saint Jean station before joining the inaugural service to Arcachon.
