THE first of 10 Alstom Régiolis trains for the French region of Upper Normandy was officially presented to regional president Mr Nicholas Mayer Rossignol by SNCF Mobility regional director Mr Jean-Philippe Dupont and Mr Jean Williamson, director of Alstom's Reichshoffen plant, at Sotteville depot near Rouen on August 18.

CROATIAN wagon manufacturer Duro Daković has been awarded a Kuna 80m ($US 11.8m) contract by French rolling stock leasing company Atir Rail to supply a batch of type Zacns bogie tank wagons.

A new ballastless track system developed by French engineers is designed to reduce the initial capital required for slab track and deliver better life-cycle costs than ballasted track. As Keith Barrow reports, NBT is now on test in Russia, where it will be subjected to high axleloads and extreme temperatures.

ALSTOM confirmed on August 5 that the French region of Midi-Pyrénées has exercised an option worth €46m for eight additional Régiolis multiple units, taking the region's fleet of these trains to 32 sets.

THE French city of Angers has launched a tender for design and project management services for its second light rail line.

A ceremony was held on July 23 to mark the entry into service of the first German Rail (DB) class 407 ICE 3 on cross-border services from Frankfurt to Paris. An agreement was also signed to extend shared DB and French National Railways (SNCF) Germany - France cross-border services, which began in 2007, to 2020.

TP FERRO, the concessionaire for the international high-speed line between Figueres, Spain, and Perpignan, France, which is owned by Spanish and French construction companies ACS and Eiffage, definitively filed for protection from creditors at a Girona court last week.

FOLLOWING a lengthy legal dispute, plans to extend Bordeaux's tram network to the northwest received a significant boost on July 21, when the city's administrative appeal court ruled that the €270m project can go ahead.

EUROSTAR has finally completed the refurbishment of the first train from its existing fleet of class 373 trains (dubbed e300 by Eurostar) and the train will re-enter service shortly.

THE French city of Grenoble inaugurated the second phase of light rail Line E on July 13 with the launch of commercial services on the 6.7km extension from Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux Town Hall to Saint Égrève and Fontanil Cornillion.