KISHON port in Haifa witnessed the successful arrival of the first Bombardier Traxx locomotive for Israel Railways on August 28, the country's first electric unit.

THE Inter-American Development Bank has approved a $US 400m loan to support signalling and telecommunications upgrades and electrification of the 76km San Martin commuter railway in Buenos Aires, the only suburban line in the city not to be electrified.

AMTRAK and Siemens unveiled the first of 33 new Charger locomotives for the United States passenger operator's rebranded Midwest services in a ceremony held at Chicago's Union Station on August 28.

DANISH notified body (NoBo) TÜV SÜD Danmark has won contracts for two sections of the planned 320km/h railway linking Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.

ACCORDING to Mr Yusef Gheranpasha, head of Iranian Islamic Republic Railways’ (RAI) northern region, a Russian bank has agreed a €1bn loan to help fund the electrification of the 500km line linking Garmsar, on the Tehran - Mashhad main line, with Gha’em Shahr, Bandar Turkman and Gorgan.

THE first sleeping cars being supplied by CAF to Serco Caledonian Sleepers, Britain, under a £150m contract have arrived at the Velim test centre in the Czech Republic in preparation for testing.

LONDON Underground (LU) has awarded a £112.1m contract to Bombardier to refit its fleet of 85 eight-car Central line trains with new ac traction motors and control equipment.