THE government of the Australian state of Victoria has announced the shortlisted bidders to finance and build 37 high-capacity six-car trains for the Melbourne suburban network.

NEW South Wales minister for transport Mr Andrew Constance unveiled on November 6 a life-size model of the 22 Metropolis metro trains being built by Alstom for Sydney's first metro line.

THE Australian government has announced a tender for the provision of technical and engineering advisory services for the proposed $A 10bn Inland Rail project from Melbourne to Brisbane, which will create a 1700km freight link and includes constructing 600km of new line.

Cities across Australia have invested in light rail in recent years but many projects widely considered as essential to relieve traffic congestion are yet to secure the funding they need. Mark Carter sheds light on the current situation.

With lacklustre domestic economic growth and turmoil in the commodities sector resulting in a difficult year for Australian railfreight, Mark Carter reviews the current issues and looks at the key indicators that will shape the industry in 2016 and beyond.

The Fortescue Railway operates some of the longest and heaviest trains in the world, and in the seven years since it began hauling iron-ore across the deserts of the Pilbara region, it continues to push the technical boundaries of heavy-haul. Keith Barrow reports from Western Australia on the latest developments in Fortescue's unrelenting quest for greater efficiency and higher capacity.

AMSTED Rail is developing new designs of components to produce a bogie to meet the demand from Australian heavy-haul freight railways for 45-tonne axleload freight wagons, or even 50-tonne axleloads in the future.

THE Australian government has published a 10-year delivery plan to implement the $A 10bn ($US 7bn) Inland Rail project to create a 1700km line for freight traffic linking Brisbane with Melbourne by building around 600km of new line.

THE government of New Zealand has offered a financial lifeline to embattled state-owned railway KiwiRail by committing to a $NZ 200m ($US 130.7m) annual subsidy for the railway.

THE Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has selected Telstra in a 10-year contract to provide continuing telecommunications services through its NextG network to support ARTC's National Train Communications System (NTCS) for the 8500km Australian freight railway network.