AUSTRIAN Federal Railways (ÖBB) signed an agreement with the City of Vienna and the Austrian Ministry of Transport on June 14 to invest €450m to improve and expand the Vienna S-Bahn network.
THE new West Midlands Combined Authority centred on Birmingham, Britain, is drawing up plans through Transport for West Midlands, which comes into force this month, to expand the rail network under a £4bn 10-year transport investment plan.
EAST Japan Railway Company (JR East) has unveiled a Yen 250bn ($US 2.4bn) project to rebuild three stations in central Tokyo in preparation for the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
LONG Island Rail Road (LIRR) has awarded two design-build contracts for track-doubling on part of the Ronkonkoma branch.
The Turkish government is investing heavily in its railway as it aims to deliver a modern network by 2023. Turkish State Railways (TCDD) is inevitably playing a critical role in delivering various projects and TCDD's assistant general director Ismail Murtazaoglu met Kevin Smith in Ankara to discuss progress so far.
THE first phase of a programme to electrify the suburban rail network around the Sri Lankan capital Colombo will cost around $US 300m, according to a recently-completed study.
ARGENTINA's Ministry of Transport is to invest Pesos 1.64bn ($US 115.5m) during the next four years to upgrade the 54km metre-gauge Belgrano North commuter rail line linking Buenos Aires Retiro with Vila Rosa.
BRITAIN's Rail Accident Investigation Branch (Raib) says 2015 was the eighth year in a row that there were no passenger fatalities resulting from train accidents, and that Britain's railways remain among the safest in Europe.
GO-AHEAD Transport Germany has awarded a contract to Stadler for 45 Flirt EMUs to operate on Lots 2 and 3 of the Stuttgart Network 1 concession which Go-Ahead will take over in April 2019.
THE first of 12 Jazz regional EMUs for the Italian region of Campania was formally presented to regional president Mr Vincenzo de Luca by Mrs Barbara Morgante, CEO of Trenitalia, and Mr Pierre Louis Bertina, CEO of Alstom Italy, on April 26.