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A CHINESE company has been awarded a contract to conduct a feasibility study into a line between the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and the Vietnamese border, which will fill one of the key missing sections of the Singapore-Kunming Trans Asian Rail Link.

THE AUSTRALIAN Federal Government has allocated $A 365 million ($US 278 million) towards the construction of the first light rail line on Queensland's Gold Coast. Gold Coast City Council has already pledged $A 150 million towards the $A 850 million project and construction is expected to begin next year.

A SECOND attempt to privatise the freightarm of Polish State Railways could be postponed unless the economic situation beginsto improve within the next two or three months, according to the Polishgovernment. Deputy infrastructure minister Mr Juliusza Engelhardt says the saleof shares in PKP Cargo may not take place before the end of 2011, although therestructuring of the company, which is Europe's second largest railfreightoperator, will continue in preparation for an eventual flotation.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) and Siemens celebrated a new Russian rail speed record on May 2 when a 10-car Sapsan high-speed train reached 281km/h on the Okulovka - Mstinskiy Most section of the Moscow - St Petersburg line.

DESPITE the economic downturn, Vossloh has increased its first quarter sales, with healthy performance in the rail infrastructure sector providing much of the boost. Sales reached Euros 288.9 million, up 0.2% compared with the same period in 2008, while EBIT rose 0.7% to Euros 30.5 million. Vossloh Group now has an order backlog of around €1.2 billion.