A ceremony was held in the German state of Baden-Württemberg on November 11 to mark the start of electrification works on the 17km Schönbuch Railway from Böblingen to Dettenhausen.

BRITAIN’s Rail Minister Mr Paul Maynard MP announced on November 8 that after scrutiny from the Hendy review, he and the Department for Transport (DfT) have decided to defer four key elements of the troubled Great Western Main Line (GWML) electrification programme.

LATVIAN Railways (LDZ) and the Latvian Ports Transport and Logistics Council have unveiled a plan to expand the electrified network from 257km to 839km and replace all existing dc electrification with ac equipment.

INDIA’s Ministry of Railways has awarded Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) a Rs 8.89bn ($US 133m) contract to electrify four lines totalling 761 route-km as part of a programme to electrify 24,000km of the Indian Railways (IR) network over the next five years.

A financing agreement for the electrification of the Paris Est - Troyes line was signed on September 13 by Mr Patrick Jeantet, president of French infrastructure manager SNCF Network, and representatives of the French government and regional and local councils.

BRITAIN’s Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) has awarded Brecknell Willis, Britain, a £300,000 grant to fund the development of a closed-loop pantograph, which measures contact with overhead electrification and automatically adjusts its position to optimise current collection.

GREAT Western Railway (GWR) launched electric suburban services out of London Paddington on September 5, when the first two of 45 class 387 Electrostar EMUs began operating peak services to Hayes & Harlington.

CALTRAIN, which operates the San Francisco - San Jose commuter rail line in California, has awarded contracts to Stadler Rail for new trains and Balfour Beatty to electrify the 83.7km line.

GOLDSCHMIDT Thermit Group announced on August 9 that it has acquired Swedish road-rail vehicle company SRS Sjölanders for an undisclosed sum.

THE first trials with two Hitachi Rail Europe class 800 Intercity Express Programme (IEP) bi-mode trains under electric traction were conducted on Britain's Great Western Main Line on the night of July 16-17.