WEST MIDLANDS transport authority Centro has selected CAF as preferred bidder for the contract to supply LRVs for the 20km Midland Metro light rail line, which links Birmingham City Centre with Wolverhampton.

RUSSIA's prime minister, Mr Vladimir Putin, together with the president of Russia's ICT Group, Mr Alexander Nesis, officiated at the opening of a 250,00m2 freight wagon factory in Tikhvin. The high-tech plant will have the capacity to produce annually 13,000 wagons, 90,000 tonnes of railway castings, and 13,000 wheelsets under one roof, making it by far the biggest wagon manufacturer in Russia.

A series of contracts worth $S 604.2m ($US 482m) have been awarded to increase the capacity of the Singapore metro through the purchase of additional trains from Alstom and for signalling work to be carried out by Thales.

SIEMENS presented the first completed Desiro Rus regional emu to Russian Railways (RZD) vice-president Mr Valentin Gapanovich at its plant in Krefeld, Germany, on January 27.

DANISH infrastructure manager Banedanmark has today signed two contracts worth a total of Euros 700m as part of its programme to install ERTMS across the entire 2100km mainline network by 2021.

BASLE Transport Authority (BVB) has signed a SFr 222m ($US 241m) contract with Bombardier for a fleet of 60 Flexity low-floor LRVs, which according to BVB is the largest single order for new vehicles in its 116-year history.

A ground-breaking ceremony was held at the site of Altamonte Springs station in the north of Orlando, Florida, on Friday to mark the start of construction on the state's $US 1.3bn SunRail commuter rail project.

THE European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to provide a Euros 95m sovereign-guaranteed loan to Serbian Railways (ZS) to help upgrade the section of European Corridor 10 between Belgrade and the Croatian border.

TURNOVER at French National Railways (SNCF) was up by 7.2% at Euros 32.65bn in 2011 compared with Euros 30.47bn in 2010, with particularly strong performance in the railway's passenger sectors.

THE city of Dijon celebrated the arrival of its first Alstom Citadis LRV at its new operating and maintenance centre on January 26. Testing of the vehicle will commence in February on the 8.5km Line T1 and 11.5km Line T2, which serve 16 and 21 stations respectively in the Greater Dijon area. Commercial operations on the new network are scheduled to begin in September.

CSX reported record performance in revenue, operating income, operating ratio, and earnings per share during 2011 in its annual results announced today. Revenue was up by 10% to $US 11.7bn, operating income by 11% to $US 3.4bn, operating ratio improved to 71.5%, and earnings per share was up by 24% to $US 1.67.

ANSALDO STS today confirmed it has been awarded the contract to supply signalling, automation, and telecommunications systems for the first phase of the UAE's planned railway network.

REVENUE for GE Transportation soared by 45% last year to $US 4.9bn compared with 2010, while profits for the year more than doubled from $US 315m in 2010 to $US 757m.

CANADIAN Pacific Railway today announced it will invest between $C 1.1bn ($US 1.08bn) and $C 1.2bn on infrastructure renewal, network enhancements and expansion projects in 2012 as part of its multi-year plan, which aims to improve service and increase network capacity while funding business development and initiatives with a rapid return on investment.

GERMAN Rail (DB) is to transfer some inter-city services to a new subsidiary in a move that is likely to boost the profitability of its long-distance passenger unit. DB Transport will be part of DB Regio and will take over inter-city routes 35 (Cologne - Norddeich Mole), 55 (Cologne - Leipzig) and 56 (Norddeich Mole - Dresden). These are former InterRegio services, which were upgraded to Intercity status when the InterRegio network was broken up in 2003.

COMMERCIAL operations have begun on the first line in Croatia to be equipped with ERTMS.

BRITISH infrastructure manager Network Rail (NR) has announced framework agreements worth approximately £1.5bn for railway signalling projects over the next seven years.

FRENCH infrastructure manager French Rail Network (RFF) has selected a consortium led by Bouygues as its preferred bidder for the contract to build the Euros 1.4bn Nîmes-Montpelier bypass.

TRANSNET and Swazi Rail (SR) signed an agreement this morning to build a new railway between South Africa's Mpumalanga province and western Swaziland in a move that will relieve the congested Richards Bay heavy-haul line and give Swaziland direct rail access to Johannesburg and Pretoria.

SPANISH infrastructure manager Adif has awarded a 20-year supply-install-commission-maintain signalling contract for the Albacete - Alicante high-speed line to a consortium of Alstom, Comsa Emte, Isolux Concesiones, and CAF. The contract is worth around Euros 280m, of which Alstom has a Euros 110m share.