AT a meeting on July 24 Casablanca city council voted to abandon plans for a 15km elevated metro line in favour of expanding the city's light rail network.

MOROCCAN National Railways (ONCF) has awarded a €30m contract for the first phase of its national GSM-R deployment to a consortium of Thales, Huawei, and Imet, Italy.

NIGERIA's Ministry of Transport has invited bids for a consultant to carry out a $US 8m feasibility study into the construction of six proposed standard-gauge lines totalling 4028km.

RIFT Valley Railways (RVR), the concessionaire which operates the 1900km metre-gauge network in Kenya and Uganda, has announced capital investment will exceed $US 100m this year.

EMD has secured four separate orders to supply locomotives to customers in Africa.

THE ALSTOM-led Gibela consortium and Passenger Rail Authority of South Africa (Prasa) have concluded the design review for the new fleet of 600 X'Trapolis Mega EMUs, clearing the way for production to begin on the first vehicles.

ARCELORMITTAL Liberia (AML) took delivery last month of six additional ES44AC locomotives from GE, which will supplement the existing fleet of three GE units and enable the operation of 140-wagon trains on the 243km line linking the Tokadeh iron-ore mine with the port of Buchanan.

GERMAN infrastructure consultant Gauff Ingenieure has been awarded a $US 8.6m contract to design the new standard-gauge railway line linking Uganda's capital Kampala with Kigali in Rwanda.

THE government of Uganda is planning to invite six Chinese companies to compete for contracts worth up to $US 8.3bn to expand the country's railway network.

CAMEROON and its landlocked neighbour Chad reached an agreement on June 3 to carry out a feasibility study into the construction of a 700km line linking Ngaoundéré in northeast Cameroon with Ndjamena, the Chadian capital.