HUNGARIAN State Railways (MAV) has awarded a Forints 58.8bn ($US 212m) contract for the second phase of its national GSM-R rollout to a consortium of construction contractor R-Kord and telematics company I-Cell Mobilsoft.

POLISH track authority PKP PLK has awarded Nokia and its partners Herkules, Pozbud and Wasko a five-year contract to deploy GSM-R and a mission-critical backhaul network across the Polish railway network.

IRJ at the UIC World Conference on Rail Transport Telecoms, Paris: Key European rail bodies have stressed that the industry will need to make a clear and robust case for its future radio spectrum requirements as it works to develop a successor to GSM-R.

EUROTUNNEL inaugurated its new GSM-R network for the Channel Tunnel on September 29 following the completion of a €48m, six-year project.

ISRAEL Railways has invited bids by November 11 for a five-year contract, extendable up to 10 years, to design, install and maintain a GSM-R telecommunications system on its 800km network.

ITALY's infrastructure manager, Italian Rail Network (RFI) says ETCS Level 1 will become operational on the line from Domodossola to Isele on the Swiss border in December. The line is part of the Rhine-Alps TEN-T corridor.

ISRAEL Railways (IR) has invited bids by June 30 for a 10-year contract to design, build, test, commission, and maintain a radio communications system for the Tel Aviv - Jerusalem A1 fast rail link.