Norway: Infrastructure manager Bane Nor has awarded Norconsult an Nkr 350m ($US 32.85m) contract to design the main works for a project in the centre of Moss, including the station building and platforms, the northern part of the excavated tunnel and the portal at Kleberget, and track infrastructure and substructure. The main works construction contract is due to go out tender next year for award in 2025, with estimated value of Nkr 1.5bn.

Spain: National operator Renfe has reported a loss of €70.45m for the first quarter of 2023, an improvement on the negative result of €95.56m the year before. Income from passenger and freight operations was up 6.8% year-on-year at €901.28m. This was driven by a 34.1% increase in passenger traffic, mainly from PSO services where ridership was up by 35% due to the government’s free season ticket initiative. Passenger numbers on commercial services grew by 19.7% despite growing competition in the high-speed market. Renfe says a 30.3% reduction in the cost of energy for traction compared with Q1 2022 enabled total costs to be contained, up only 4% at €952.92m.

Germany: The public transport authorities of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg are tendering a 12-year contract to operate regional services on the Centre and Southwest networks. The Centre contract will involve operating 5 million train-km a year on the routes from Hamburg to Kiel and to Flensburg, with an option to extend some Flensburg services to Tinglev in Denmark. The Southwest contract will see 3 million train-km a year operated on two routes: Hamburg - Itzehoe with an option to extend to Heide after electrification; and Hamburg - Wrist, with an option to extend to Kellinghusen if the line is reopened.

United States: Passenger operator Brightline has awarded Siemens Mobility subsidiary Sqills a contract to supply its S3 Passenger inventory, ticketing and reservation system. Sqills says the new system will enable Brightline to optimally manage and maximise seat utilisation for higher capacity and yields, as it extends its network to Orlando this summer.

Netherlands: The province of Gelderland has awarded Keolis Nederland the concession to operate regional services on the Valleilijn from Amersfoort to Ede-Wageningen. The contract will start on December 10 and run for a term of 15 years, with services to be maintained at the current level despite passenger traffic not having recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Keolis will replace Transdev Nederland subsidiary Connexxion, with staff transferring to the new operator as well as the fleet of five two-car Protos EMUs and two Stadler GTW EMUs that will be refurbished over the next two years.

Indonesia: State railway PT KAI has signed a Rupiah 800bn ($US 54.32m) contract with PT IMST, a subsidiary of state-owned rolling stock manufacturer PT Inka, to supply spare parts for EMU cars and bogies in 2023-26. The parts will mainly be used in the repair and maintenance of K1 and K3 EMUs.

Europe: Tendering is due start in the fourth quarter of this year for three separate contracts to operate regional services on the Westmunsterland network that includes cross-border services between Germany and the Netherlands. The Rhine-Ruhr transport authority (VRR) will award the RB 63 contract for the Münster - Coesfeld route, while the Dutch province of Overijseel and the city of Enschede will award the contract for the service from Dortmund to Coesfeld and Enschede in the Netherlands (RB 51) and for RB 64 from Münster to Enschede. Operations will commence on December 13 2026 and will cover an annual volume of 3.3 million train-km.

United States: The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has awarded Ensco a new five-year contract to undertake its Automated Track Inspection Programme (Atip), involving the provision of operations, maintenance, IT and engineering support services for the FRA fleet of track inspection vehicles. Ensco has been supporting Atip since 1974. “Ensco looks forward to continuing to provide the operational excellence, innovative technology and testing methods, and high-quality data products that FRA has come to expect,” says Mr Gary Martin, Atip programme manager at Ensco.

Spain: Infrastructure manager Adif has issued a new tranche of green bonds with a total value of €500m, intended to finance or refinance projects with environmental benefits such as tackling climate change. The bonds have a term of 10 years and have an annual interest rate or coupon of 3.9%. Adif reports that this latest issue was 4.6 times oversubscribed and was the seventh tranche of green bonds it has placed on the market since June 2017, during which time it has raised a total of €4bn.

Germany: Public transport authority Bavarian Railways has invited bids by October 13 for the East Bavaria Express operating contract, covering regional services on route RE 2 from Munich to Hof. The new contract will run for 15 years from December 2027 and covers a total of 2.21 million train-km a year. It will include termination options to enable services to be reconfigured following electrification of the Regensburg - Marktredwitz - Hof section of the route, planned by the federal government for the 2030s but for which no project schedule has yet been set, according to BEG. Bavaria will offer a capital guarantee for the acquisition of new rolling stock, but not for diesel trains or locomotives. BEG expects to award the contract at the end of December 2023.