WEDNESDAY's shock announcement by Britain's secretary of state for transport, Mr Patrick McLoughlin, to cancel the West Coast franchise contract which had been awarded to First Group on August 15, due to flaws in the franchising process, was not only deeply embarrassing for the government, but it has thrown the whole franchising system into turmoil and cast serious doubts over its future.

ELECTION fever is currently sweeping the United States, and again one of the major rhetorical themes from candidates campaigning for the presidency right down to the local city council is the conundrum of small versus big government.

THE acquisition of Rail America by fellow US regional railway operator Genesee & Wyoming Inc (GWI) may be making the headlines, but industry analysts would do well to consider the strength of GWI's Australian operations and their importance to the company's bottom line.

THE Institution of Railway Signal Engineers launched its centenary year at its Aspect signalling conference in London last month by including some papers devoted to charting the considerable progress achieved in railway signalling and train control during the last 100 years.

IN the world of European railway policy, it's fair to say things usually move along quite slowly. The mind-bending complexity of drawing up and implementing legislation involving many institutions in many countries means progress, or often the lack of it, tends to be measured over years rather than days.

DESPITE the continuing economic uncertainty caused by Europe's sovereign debt and eurozone crises, which are dragging down other parts of the world, there is still considerable cause for optimism in the railway industry, which in many cases is still outperforming other sectors. As we report this month, there is mounting evidence to back this up.

THE sporting trance that gripped London and the whole of Britain during the Olympic Games earlier this month is set to be reignited over the next 11 days for the Paralympics. Hundreds of thousands of extra visitors and public transport users are expected each day as London once again becomes the centre of the sporting universe.

LAST MONTH Italy's Competition and Market Guarantee Authority (Agcom) fined Italian State Railways (FS) for attempting to disrupt and prevent open-access operator Arenaways from operating a competing service between Milan and Turin.

LAST month Bulgaria's finance minister Mr Simeon Djankov put a gun to the heads of senior managers at Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) and threatened to suspend operating subsidies unless the company could produce a credible plan for reform within days.

OVER the last 20 years various plans or projects for light rail lines have been put forward by cities in Chile, but not one has got as far as the drawing board, let alone beyond it. The most ambitious was that presented for Santiago in 2002 and 2003 by Sacyr, Spain, which envisaged light rail lines running along principal corridors not served by the metro.