THE French prime minister, Mr Edouard Philippe, conducted the first meetings on February 19 to discuss the reform of French National Railways (SNCF) following the submission to him on February 15 of a report on the future of rail transport by a commission led by former Air France-KLM chairman Mr Jean-Cyril Spinetta.

EUROSTAR operated its inaugural service between London, Rotterdam and Amsterdam on February 20, an event which outgoing CEO Mr Nicolas Petrovic described as historic for the international high-speed operator as it finally expanded east beyond its core London - Paris/Brussels network.

ESTONIA’s Ministry of Public Administration approved the spatial plan for the Rail Baltica high-speed line in Estonia on February 14 thereby completing the final route and preliminary design of the entire railway in the three Baltic states.

A crucial decision on the future of Switzerland’s inter-city network will be made this year, which could break SBB’s monopoly on the sector. BLS CEO Bernard Guillelmon talks to Keith Barrow about how the country’s second-largest railway plans to re-enter the long-distance market.

THE Province of Ontario has appointed former Canadian federal transport minister Mr David Collenette as chair of the Ontario High Speed Rail Planning Advisory board, which will oversee the development of plans for a high-speed line linking Toronto with Windsor.

MALAYSIAN engineering firm George Kent announced to the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange on February 12 that it has reached an agreement with Siemens, Alstom, Italian State Railways (FS) and Porr, Austria, to form a consortium to bid for the AssetsCo tender for the Singapore - Kuala Lumpur high-speed line.

EUROSTAR will launch its first direct London - Amsterdam passenger service on April 4, initially offering two trains per day in one direction only.

THE shareholders of Italy’s open-access high-speed operator Italo-NTV have decided to accept the offer from the Global Infrastructure Partners III equity fund to acquire the entire share capital of the company for €1.94bn.

AN investigation is underway after an Amtrak Acela Express train en route from Washington DC to New York split in two while running at a reported 200km/h as it travelled along the Northeast Corridor in Maryland at about 06.30 on February 6.

NEW York-based investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners III (GIP) has launched a bid to acquire Italian open-access high-speed operator Italo-NTV, just weeks before its planned initial public offering (IPO) on the Milan stock exchange.