With Brazil's ambitious programme of railway construction plans stalling, the government is revising its concession model for new projects to rely more on private investment while easing pressure on public debt. Kevin Smith looks at the intricacies of this new policy and how the market might receive it.
LETBANEN, the public company responsible for developing the tram-train network in the Danish city of Aarhus, revealed the final interior and exterior designs on June 1 for its fleet of 26 LRVs, which is being supplied by Stadler Pankow.
PLANS to extend Budapest metro Line 4 east from its current terminus at Keleti have effectively been abandoned after the municipal goverment voted instead to expand the city's tram network.
COMMERCIAL services began operating on Marseille's third light rail line on May 30 with the opening of the 1.2km branch to Place Castellane, which extends the network into the south of the city.
BIDDING has opened for the track improvement project on Philippine National Railways (PNR), worth Peso 144.3bn ($US 3.2m), in an attempt to revive and improve Southeast Asia’s oldest railway system.
A consortium of Főmterv and Ecoroad has won the tender to prepare the detailed feasibility study for building the Hungarian section of the Budapest-Belgrade high-speed line. The study will cost Forints 527m ($US 1.8m).
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 detailed construction schedule for Sydney's CBD and South East light rail line was released on May 28, with major city centre works on the 12km route scheduled to start on October 23.
A commission set up by the French government to draw up proposals for the development of loss-making Intercity services published its initial report on May 26, recommending significant changes to the organisation and operation of the network.