TODAY marks the start of commercial services on France's latest high-speed line - TGV Rhin-Rhône - and a major reorganisation of services in which 85% of trains have been rescheduled.

PLANS to reopen two cross-border lines in Germany - one in the south into the Czech Republic and the other in the north into Poland - are gaining traction.

Hartmut Mehdorn has transformed German Rail (DB) over the last decade from a struggling national railway to a successful international company ready for a stock exchange flotation. But allegations that senior DB managers spied on thousands of workers has led to his resignation, as Keith Barrow explains