THE government of the German state of North Rhine Westphalia has signed three financing and implementation agreements with Rhineland Transport Authority (NVR) and German Rail (DB) for the long-planned extension of Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn Line S13 from Troisdorf to Bonn Oberkassel.
NEW train schedules were launched across Europe on December 14, and according to the December issue of the European Rail Timetable, the improvements outnumber the number of services being withdrawn.
BASLE Transport Authority (BVB) celebrated the opening of the city's first light rail link into Germany on December 14 with a day of free rides on the northern extension of Line 8 from Kleinhüningen to Weil-am-Rhein in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
GERMAN Rail (DB) board member for infrastructure and services Dr Volker Kefer has unveiled details of plans to spend a minimum of €28bn over the next four years on maintenance and investment in Germany's mainline rail network.
VEOLIA Transport has sent an open letter to German federal transport minister Mr Alexander Dobrindt calling for the end of discrimination against rail in the German transport market, particularly in the long-distance arena, where trains have faced an onslaught from cheaper buses since the liberalisation of the German bus market in January 2013.
DELAYS in delivery of Stadler Flirt EMUs for the new Nordbahn service, which is due to commence on Schleswig-Holstein's central network from Hamburg to Itzehoe and Wrist on December 14, is putting the start of operations in doubt.
THE German federal government has approved a draft amendment of the federal railway act by transport minister Mr Alexander Dobrindt which is intended to pave the way for major changes in the authorisation and commissioning of new rolling stock.
The cabinet of the German state of Baden-Württemberg has approved plans for the implementation of the first phase of the Neckar-Alb tram-train network around Reutlingen and Tübingen.
THE North West Rail (NWB) subsidiary of Veolia Verkehr, Germany, has won a 10-year concession from the transport authorities of Lower Saxony, Bremen, and Westphalia Lippe to operate the Weser-Ems rail network.
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.