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.
WESTPHALIA-Lippe Local Transport (NWL) has selected Keolis for a contract to operate the Teutoburger Wald regional network in northwest Germany from December 2017, which will become effective from December 2017.
A framework contract has been awarded by Pesa, Poland, to Rolls-Royce for up to 940 MTU diesel power-packs to be fitted to Link DMUs for German Rail (DB).
THE Bavarian Railway Authority (BEG) has published a prior information notice in the Official Journal of the European Union for a contract to operate regional services on non-electrified lines around Ulm.
GERMAN infrastructure manager DB Networks has issued a tender notice for a contract to reinstate the German section of the short cross-border link between Selb, Germany, and Aš in the Czech Republic.