A TENDER notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on March 13 for a contract to operate direct cross-border passenger services between The Hague and Brussels.
BRITAIN's franchised passenger operators continued to defy the stagnant economic conditions during the third quarter of the 2012-13 financial year according to the latest figures from the Office of Rail Regulation, which reveal record ridership for the period between October 1 and December 31.
THE Turkish government has presented a bill to parliament to split up Turkish State Railways (TCDD) to form a separate infrastructure manager and a train operating company, while at the same time paving the way for open-access operators.
ARRIVA, FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach, which were bidding for the cancelled Great Western franchise, have filed papers with the High Court in an attempt to get Britain's Department for Transport (DfT) to refund their costs.
THE government of Monterey County, California, is considering a proposal to extend the state's successful Capitol Corridor inter-city passenger service south from San Jose to serve the town of Salinas.
THE Danish government has announced plans to use North Sea oil revenues to finance a €3.7bn investment in the country's railway infrastructure over the next decade, which will reduce journey times between Denmark's five largest cities.
THE Hungarian government has given the go-ahead for a long-discussed project to build a 113km freight line between Tatabánya and Cegléd, by-passing Budapest. This would be the biggest new railway construction in the country since 1912.
NORWEGIAN State Railways (NSB) has placed an order with Stadler for an additional 16 Flirt emus which will be delivered between spring 2014 and early 2015.
THE British parliament's Public Accounts Committee has published a scathing report on last year's cancellation of West Coast franchise by the Department for Transport (DfT).
THE European Union (EU) will allocate Lats 400m ($US 752m) towards a programme to electrify Latvia's railway network, according to a statement issued by the Latvian Ministry of Transport. The Ministry says that the work is scheduled to begin by the end of this year and will last up to 2020.
