ALGERIA's National Railway Investment Agency (Anesrif) has awarded Estel, a joint venture of Algeria National Railways (SNTF) and Siemens a contract to supply signalling and operations control equipment to upgrade the 90km Beni Mansour - Bejaia line to double-track.

METROLINX, the regional transport authority for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton region, has awarded Alstom a contract worth more than $US 250m to resignal the 6.4km Union Station Rail Corridor (USRC).

FINMECCANICA says it received an offer from Hitachi on November 17 for the acquisition of its loss-making rolling stock unit AnsaldoBreda and the company's 40% stake in Ansaldo STS.

BRITAIN's secretary of state for transport, Mr Patrick McLoughlin, has approved a £1bn 5km extension to the Northern Line of London Underground (LU).

CHINA Railway Investment Corporation (CRIC) has begun procurement for 10 packages to supply onboard Chinese Train Control System (CTCS) equipment for 740 high-speed trains operated by China Railway Corporation (CRC).

BELGIUM's infrastructure manager Infrabel has awarded a joint venture of Siemens and Cofely Fabricom, Belgium, a €510m contract to rollout ETCS Level 2 on 36% of the Belgian network.

PARIS Transport Authority (RATP) has awarded Siemens a €45m contract to supply communications-based train control (CBTC) for the 6km, four-station northern extension of metro Line 14 to Mairie de Saint-Ouen.

Siemens and Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) are currently introducing a new interlocking architecture which incorporates the latest in communications technology. Reto Wagner, head of electronic interlockings and track vacancy detection systems at Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), and Peter Hefti product lifecycle manager, Siemens Switzerland, outline Sinet.

YAPI Merkezi, Turkey, which is constructing a $US 1.7bn railway in Ethiopia, has awarded Bombardier a €36m contract to install ERTMS.

THE Norwegian government has revealed plans to increase spending on the country's railway network to record levels next year as part of the 2015 state budget, which was announced on October 8.