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.

A genset locomotive is to be developed for Russia and neighbouring CIS countries following an agreement between Russia's Yakutia Railways and Molinari Rail, Switzerland.

LIMMATTALBAHN has issued a call for tender for contracts to manage the tendering and realisation of the civil works and railway technology elements of a SFr 715m ($US 797m) project to build a 13.4km light rail line in the Limmat Valley of the Zurich area.

THE INITIAL phase of test running in the first completed section of the Gotthard Base Tunnel has concluded successfully, paving the way for the start of test operation through the entire length of the 57km tunnel next year.

ZÜRICH's main station has been transformed from a terminus into a through station thanks to the opening of the new Durchmesserlinie (DML) cross-city link on June 14.

Several projects are in the pipeline or already underway to upgrade rail links in the regional triangle between Germany, Austria and Switzerland, not to mention Liechtenstein a little further south. Anitra Green takes a look at the current state of play.

PLANS to build a rail link to Basle's bi-national airport, Euroairport, located over the Swiss border in France, have been revived by Mr Philippe Richert, president of the Regional Council of Alsace, who is pushing for the project to be realised by 2020.

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.

RHAETIAN Railways (RhB) announced on May 12 that the Swiss Federal Ministry of Transport (BAV) has granted a construction permit for the construction of the new 5.9km Albula Tunnel on the metre-gauge line from Chur to St Moritz.

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.