ALGIERS Metro Enterprise (EMA) announced on October 30 that it has selected a consortium of Alstom and Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi as preferred bidder for the contract to build the first phase of the light rail network in the city of Setif, 270km east of Algiers.

UGANDAN president Mr Yoweri Musveni attended a ceremony in the northern town of Gulu on October 26 to mark the reopening of the Rift Valley Railways (RVR) line from Tororo near the Kenyan border, 18 years after services ceased.

THE government of Gauteng is evaluating options for the expansion of the Pretoria – Johannesburg Gautrain standard-gauge network as part of the South African province's 25-year Integrated Transport Master Plan (ITMP25), which seeks to prioritise public transport investment in the region.

PASSENGER Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has signed a Rand 51bn ($US 5bn) contract with the Gibela joint venture led by Alstom to supply 3600 cars to be formed into 600 emus during a 10-year period, plus spare parts for 18 years. Financial closure of the contract is expected in December.

SWIFAMBO Rail Leasing, South Africa, has awarded a €250m contract to Vossloh for 70 electro-diesel passenger locomotives which will be leased to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to haul passenger trains. The contract includes options for a minimum of 10 additional units as well as to maintain the fleet.

TRIALS have started in South Africa with three locomotives fitted with a system called Jika passive hydraulic steering (PHS) which is aimed at trebling the life of locomotive wheels and reducing track wear by 60%.

BRITISH mining company Beacon Hill Resources has been granted a 7.7% capacity allocation on Mozambique's Sena Line, which will allow it to transport coking and thermal coal from the Moatize Basin in Tete province to the Indian Ocean port of Beira.

CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive, China, has unveiled the first of 95 Class 20E dual-voltage electric locomotives for Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), South Africa, which were ordered last October from the CSR E-loco Supply consortium at a cost of Rand 2.6bn ($US 298m).

RUSSIAN freight wagon producer Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) has indicated an interest in establishing an assembly facility in Angola to build rolling stock for railways in southern Africa.

THE Alstom-led Gibela consortium has selected a site at Ekurhuleni in the South African province of Gauteng as the location for a Rand 2bn ($US 201m) rolling stock plant, which will assemble commuter trains for Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).