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WHILE welcoming the release of the annual National Infrastructure Plan by federal government advisory body, Infrastructure Australia (IA), the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) is asking for greater recognition of rail's larger, long term projects.

THE Thiess John Holland Dragados joint venture has been awarded a $A 1.15bn ($US 1.1bn) contract to build the tunnels and underground stations for Sydney's North West Rail Link (NWRL). This is the first of three major NWRL contracts to be awarded.

PUBLIC Transport Victoria (PTV) has awarded Alstom a contract worth around $A 121.5m ($US 111.8m) to supply eight additional six-car X'Trapolis emus for the Melbourne suburban network.

THE 2013-14 New South Wales budget has delivered a significant boost for rail projects in the Australian state, with more than $A 6bn ($US 5.7bn) allocated to new public transport and freight investment over the next four years.

THE BOARD of New Zealand's national railway KiwiRail announced on June 7 that CEO Mr Jim Quinn is to stand down when his current five-year contract expires next February.

THE New South Wales government has indicated that it will adopt driverless technology for the 23km North West Rail Link (NWRL), making it the first completely driverless mass transit system in Australia.

IRJ at the 60th UITP Congress Geneva: Alstom has developed a modular light metro system called Axonis which is designed to be quick to build and economic to construct and operate.

IRJ at the 60th UITP World Congress Geneva: Vinci, France, together with CAF, Spain, have launched Nextram, a light rail package which could be 30-40% cheaper than conventional systems for cities with a population of between 150,000 and 200,000 which up to now could only afford a bus solution.