CALIFORNIA High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has awarded Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) a two-year extension worth $US 96m for programme management services on the state's high-speed rail project.

CANADIAN Pacific Railway (CP) announced on May 7 that it will bring forward a number of capital of investment projects planned for 2014 into the current financial year, increasing the $US 1.1bn budget announced in December 2012 by $US 75-100m.

NETWORK Rail Consulting, the international consultancy arm of British infrastructure manager Network Rail (NR), has entered the North American market after being selected to join Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (NEC) Partner Forum.

NEW JERSEY Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) has launched a three-month smartphone ticketing pilot on the Pascack Valley commuter rail line, which will be used to evaluate the technology before a wider rollout across the NJ Transit rail network.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has nominated Mr Anthony Foxx, the current mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, as the next US secretary of transportation, subject to approval by the US Senate.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in Seattle on April 29 to mark the start of construction on Sound Transit's South 200th Link light rail extension.

THE US Department of Transportation has made $US 474m available for the fifth round of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (Tiger) grant programme.

THE president and CEO of Amtrak Mr Joseph Boardman has warned the US government that the country's busiest inter-city passenger railway, the Northeast Corridor (NEC) from Boston to New York and Washington DC is facing a "major coming investment crisis that, without a solution, will mean strangled growth and deteriorating service."

CALIFORNIA High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has revealed details of the five bids submitted in January for the contract to design and build the first section of the state's high-speed network.

SALT Lake City inaugurated the latest phase of its Trax light rail network on April 13, when a free preview service gave residents their first chance to travel on the 9.7km line to Salt Lake International Airport.