GERMAN Rail (DB) has confirmed that catenary will be energised on the Erfurt – Leipzig/Halle high-speed line (VDE8) on August 25 in readiness for the start of test operation on the 123km route at the end of this month or early next month.
NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) could be poised to acquire a stake in Thalys, the operator of high-speed services between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne, and Essen, according to reports in the Dutch media.
THE first of 22 Citadis low-floor LRVs being supplied by Alstom as part of the £570m second phase expansion of Nottingham's light rail network has entered service on Line 1.
SAXONY-ANHALT public transport authority Nasa has awarded Veolia a one-year extension to its contract to operate the Harz-Elbe-Express (HEX) regional network, which was previously due to expire in December 2017.
GERMANY's Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) has agreed to allocate €23m through the Municipal Transport Financing Act (GVFC) to fund a €55m project which will increase capacity on the metre-gauge tram network in Freiburg-im-Breisgau.
WEST MIDLANDS transport authority Centro announced on August 14 that its new £40m fleet of CAF Urbos LRVs will be introduced on the Midland Metro on September 5, when the first four vehicles will enter passenger service on the 20km line from Birmingham City Centre to Wolverhampton.
SCOTLAND's Borders Railway project has celebrated a milestone with the laying of the first sections of track on the 48km line from Newcraighall, south of Edinburgh, to Tweedbank.
ON August 7 Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) subsidiary ÖBB Produktion published a tender for five second-hand electric locomotives certified to operate in Slovenia.
BRITISH infrastructure manager Network Rail announced on August 12 that trial operation has begun using a Bombardier 25kV 50Hz ac class 379 EMU adapted to operate under battery power as part of the Independently-Powered Electric Multiple Unit (IPEMU) project.
On-rail competition has transformed the railfreight landscape in Europe over the last 20 years, but in wagonload - a sector competing directly with road for nearly every load - operators increasingly see cooperation as the key to maintaining and growing the business. Keith Barrow looks at how an alliance between wagonload operators is working to deliver service standards comparable with road.