THE city of Berlin and the state government of Brandenburg announced on June 3 that they will directly award two of three contracts for the operation of the Berlin S-Bahn network to German Rail (DB).Contracts for the operation of the network were split into three following unsuccessful attempts to tender these services.
THE final section of 42km of bored tunnels for London's Crossrail project has been completed allowing fitting out to commence. The £14.8bn project is now 65% complete, within budget, and on target to open in 2018.
RIO de Janeiro's suburban operator SuperVia recently completed phase 1 of its programme to upgrade its Central do Brazil terminal and 102 outlying stations, with work including the installation of Harman's IDX Information Delivery System at key stations on the network.
THE board of Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Septa) has approved the acquisition of 13 ACS-64 electric locomotives from Siemens as part of its budget for the 2015-16 financial year, which starts on July 1.
BIDDING has opened for the track improvement project on Philippine National Railways (PNR), worth Peso 144.3bn ($US 3.2m), in an attempt to revive and improve Southeast Asia’s oldest railway system.
PLANS have been announced by Eng Irit Shperber, director of transport planning in Israel's Transport Ministry, for the construction of a tram-train line between Haifa Lev-Ha-Migrate, Kiryat-Ata, Shefaram, and Nazareth.
DUTCH secretary of state for infrastructure Mrs Wilma Mansveld announced on May 27 that the Dutch government will allocate €88m towards the construction of a new line from Utrecht Central to Leidsche Rijn, a major new housing development west of the city.
THE state government of Western Australia issued its budget for 2015-2016 on May 13 with a commitment to funding the extension of the TransPerth suburban network to Perth airport, but the proposed Max light rail project appears to have been put on hold.
HOUSTON will restart planning for its first commuter rail line under an agreement signed on May 18 by Republican Senator for western Harris County Mr John Culberson and Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Metro) Mr Gilbert Garcia.
AUCKLAND Transport celebrated a milestone in the $NZ 1.6bn ($US 1.2bn) modernisation of the city's suburban rail network on May 16, when electric services operated on all lines for the first time.