PUGET Sound regional transport authority, Sound Transit, has awarded Wabtec a $US 34m contract to design, supply and install Positive Train Control (PTC) on the 132km Sounder commuter rail network around Seattle.

THE European Commission (EC) has adopted the seven-year €1bn Shift2Rail public-private partnership (PPP) research project designed to increase passenger and freight traffic within the European Union.

ITALIAN Rail Network (RFI) has awarded a consortium consisting of Alstom, Gemmo., M Pavani Segnalamento Ferroviario, Ricci and Politecnica a €120m contract to upgrade signalling and telecommunications networks on 200km of mixed traffic lines in Rome.

THE mayor of Chicago Mr Rahm Emanuel and Illinois governor Mr Pat Quinn announced on December 5 that Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) will invest $US 492 in the modernisation of the Blue Line O'Hare Branch, which links the city's main international airport with the city centre.

MILAN metro operator ATM has commissioned a new €11.5m centralised traffic control centre, which supervises the operation of all lines except the driverless Line 5.

GERMAN Rail's (DB) long-distance passenger division, DB Fernverkehr, has issued a call for tenders to fit European Train Control System (ETCS) to its ICE1 fleet of high-speed trains.

PASSENGER Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has awarded Siemens a contract worth around €180m to resignal main lines around Johannesburg and Pretoria as part of the agency's National New Signalling Programme.

THE International Union of Railways (UIC) and Britain's Railway Safety & Standards Board (RSSB) signed a memorandum of cooperation at the World Congress on Railway Research (WCRR) in Sydney on November 28 to share railway research knowledge through RSSB's Spark website. 

SARDINIAN Regional Transport (Arst) has awarded a €33m contract to a consortium of Alstom and Italian civil works contractor Gemmo to resignal two lines totalling 90km with 20 stations on the Italian island of Sardinia.

A consortium of CAF and Thales has won a $US 451.86m contract from Santiago metro to supply and maintain trains and install communications-based train control (CBTC) on two metro lines under construction in the Chilean capital.