THE Chinese premier Li Keqiang and the president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta signed an agreement on May 11 for the construction of a 609km standard-gauge railway linking the port city of Mombasa to the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

CHINA Railway Investment Corporation (CRIC) has published tenders for contracts to supply more than 1000 electric locomotives to China Railway Corporation (CRC).

CONSTRUCTION workers are celebrating connecting the bores of the 16.3km tunnel through the Qilian Mountains in northwest China which is the final part of the project to build the 1776km Lanxin railway from Lanzhou, Gansu province, to Urumqi in Xinjiang.

CHINA Railway Engineering Corporation has started work to electrify the 34.3km two-line light rail network under construction in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

THE FIRST of 20 metro trains for Dalian metro Line 2 was unveiled at the CNR Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock plant on April 21.

CSR Nanjing Puzhen Rolling Stock has unveiled the first of 18 low-floor Flexity 2 LRVs for the first phase of the city of Suzhou's under-construction light rail network.

CHINA Railways Corporation (CRC) has announced it will increase its 2014 investment budget to Yuan 720bn ($US 116.3bn), Yuan 20bn more than previously planned.

CHINA Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) has selected Siemens in a €15m contract to supply signalling equipment for the 15km completely-underground extension of Suzhou metro Line 2.

CHINA's National Development and Reform Commission has announced that freight rates on the new 179km Zhunchi Railway, which is due to open in June, will be determined by the carrier, its clients and investors.

THE national railways of Russia (RZD), Kazakhstan (KTZ) and Belarus (BC), the United Transport & Logistics Company Project Office (UTLC PO), and DHL Global Forwarding have signed a MOU to develop railfreight forwarding services between China and Europe with door-to-door delivery of containers.