MZKT, the municipal public transport operator in the Polish city of Toruń, has awarded Pesa Bydgoszcz a Zlotys 37.8m ($US 10.2m) contract to supply five bi-directional Swing low-floor LRVs for the city's metre-gauge tram network.

WARSAW Tramways has taken delivery of the first of 30 type 134N Jazz low-floor LRVs from Pesa, which will be used on lower-density routes in the city.

WARSAW celebrated the opening of its second metro line on March 8 when the city's mayor Mrs Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz launched a day of free rides on the initial 6.5km section of the east-west Line M2 from Dworzec Wileński with Rondo Daszyńskiego.

Despite the recent launch of a new premium express service intended to draw traffic back to rail, these are turbulent times for Poland's national long-distance passenger operator. Andrew Goltz considers the reasons behind declining traffic and looks at potential solutions to the problem.

GENESEE & Wyoming (G&W) announced on February 24 that it has agreed to acquire a 95% stake in Britain's Freightliner Group from Arcapita and other shareholders for $US 755m in cash.

KRAKOW Transport Authority (MPK) began three months of trial operation with a Solaris Tramino low-floor LRV on February 23 to evaluate the performance of a vehicle equipped with a supercapacitor energy storage system on the city's standard-gauge tram network.

REGIONAL transport authorities in Germany and Poland have announced direct cross-border passenger services between Dresden and Wroclaw will be withdrawn on March 1, even though a four-year operating contract only began last year.

POLISH infrastructure manager PKP has commissioned WYG Consulting to carry out a feasibility study of the electrification and modernisation of approximately 100km of the Lublin - Stalowa Wola line in southeast Poland.

THE government of Ukraine has announced plans to electrify the 105km Kovel - Izov line at 25kV ac, and is set to enter negotiations with Poland over extending this to Hrubieszow, which is the gateway to PKP-LHS, the 1520mm-gauge line to Katowice.

POLISH rolling stock manufacturer Newag announced on February 2 it has secured a €17.5m contract to supply five E6DCF-DP Dragon electric locomotives to ING Lease Poland for use by open-access railfreight operator Freightliner PL.