THE City of Ottawa is to hold talks with Ottawa International Airport Authority to discuss the possibility of constructing an airport rail link for the Canadian capital.
FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) president Mr Guillaume Pepy and Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) CEO Mr Andreas Meyer signed a joint letter of intent in Paris on October 30 providing a basis for the operation of the cross-border France-Vaud-Geneva RER network, which is due to be launched in 2017.
BRAZILIAN president Mrs Dilma Rousseff and governor of the state of São Paulo, Mr Geraldo Alckmin, announced on October 25 that a further Reais 5.4bn ($US 2.47bn) will be made available for commuter rail and metro investment in São Paulo.
TURKEY celebrated the completion of the rail connection between the European and Asian sides of Istanbul on October 29, with the inauguration of the Lira 9.2bn ($US 4.6bn) Marmaray link beneath the Bosphorus.
TRAIN services have been disrupted by a severe storm with winds gusting at up to 159km/h which swept across southern England in the early hours of October 28 before heading to the Netherlands en route to Denmark where it was expected to arrive later today.
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.
GERMAN Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Regio is to take on the operation of the Mid-German S-Bahn Network Lot 2 concession after the winning bidder Abellio decided to withdraw from the contract with the states of Saxony Anhalt and Brandenburg and Leipzig area transport authority ZVNL.
THE government of Argentina has placed an order with China Northern Rolling Stock (CNR) for 27 three-car metre gauge dmus, which will be used on commuter services on the metre-gauge Belgrano Sur network in Buenos Aires.
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.
CONSTRUCTION of the first railway tunnel for London's Crossrail project is complete after tunnel boring machine (TBM) Phyllis completed her 6.8km journey this week from Royal Oak to Farringdon.