SITURV, the public transport authority in the French city of Valenciennes, has awarded Paris Transport Authority (RATP) subsidiary RATP Dev a contract to operate the Transvilles light rail and bus network in Valenciennes and Porte du Hainaut.

THE general assembly of the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM) has elected Mr Paul Plummer, group strategy director of Britain's infrastructure manager Network Rail, as president to succeed Mr Gunnar Malm, director general of Trafikverket, Sweden.

THALYS, which operates high-speed services between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne and Essen, will become an independent company on March 31 2015 for the first time since it was set up as a purely commercial entity in 1996.

THE Metropolitan Council of Bordeaux (CUB) has voted unanimously to renew Keolis's contract to operate the city's public transport network for a further eight years from January 1.

In a discussion hosted by Railenium at InnoTrans, Pascal Sainson, CEO of Europorte, Christian Maquaire, Railenium's director of innovation research and development and a former industrial director of Eurotunnel, and Armand Toubol, vice-president of New Opera and a former director of Fret SNCF, debated what is holding railfreight back in France and what might be done to improve the situation. Kevin Smith was in the audience.

A light rail network is the centrepiece of a new transport plan for the French city of Caen, which was revealed on November 5 by Mr Joël Bruneau, president of the municipality of Caen la mer, and Mr Rodolphe Thomas, president of local transport authority Viacités.

CARGOBEAMER, a German logistics company which offers a solution for the fast transfer of semitrailers from road to rail, has formed CargoBeamer France SAS, a joint subsidiary with French real estate developer DCB International.

OPEN-ACCESS long-distance operator Thello announced on October 30 that tickets have gone on sale for its new Marseilles – Milan service, which is due to begin operating next month.

EIFFAGE Group has appointed Keymile to install the telecommunications system on the 182km high-speed line it is constructing between Le Mans and Rennes under a public-private-partnership deal to build and operate the line which was awarded by French Rail Network (RFF) in 2011.

FRANCE will need to consider reducing the number of stations served by TGV services if the network is to stand any chance of being profitable, according to a report on the finances of TGV, which was published by the French Court of Auditors on October 23.