AUSTRIA: Austria Federal Railways has begun installing bilingual signs at stations in communities that are legally defined as bilingual.

EUROPE: Open access night train operator European Sleeper is to launch a seasonal Brussels – Utrecht – Köln – München – Innsbruck – Verona – Venezia service to winter sports and city trip destinations.

UK: Nathan Seymour-Hyde, Partner and Solicitor at Reeds Solicitors, explains how train operators misused the Single Justice Procedure and why up to 75 000 convictions for fare evasion offences have now been quashed.

AFRICA: Passenger train services from the Tunisian capital to Annaba in Algeria have restarted almost 30 years after being suspended.

JAPAN: Central Japan Railway is to augment its fleet of N700S Shinkansen trainsets with a further 17 units, some of which will be fitted with infrastructure inspection equipment.

BRAZIL: Virtual reality is being used to help people with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder develop the skills to use public transport confidently and autonomously.

UK: Keltbray has sold its Infrastructure Services Ltd transport and energy business to private equity firm EMK Capital, as part of a strategy of focusing on the built environment and major civil engineering markets.

USA: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has ordered a further 41 Hyundai Rotem double-deck coaches for use on Boston commuter services.

FRANCE: A fleet of eight diesel-battery bi-mode trains, renovated stations, better reliability and easier ticketing have been promised under a modernisation programme agreed for the 1 000 mm gauge Nice – Digne line operated by Chemins de Fer de Provence.

UK: Leasing company Beacon Rail has formally awarded Alstom a £60m contract to refurbish CrossCountry’s fleet of Voyager and Super Voyager 200 km/h inter-city diesel-electric multiple-units.

News from the world rail freight market.

UK: The first rail vehicles have arrived at the St Rollox works site at Springburn in Glasgow since it was taken over by Gibson’s Engineering.

USA: The Short Line Training Center has added three modules to its Learning Management System which make use of virtual reality for enhanced engagement, greater safety than live training and increased accessibility for railway operators.

Unsere Schwesterfirma in den USA ist umgezogen: Nach vielen Jahren verliessen wir Pennsylvania und sind ab sofort in Colorada zu Hause. Unsere neue Anschrift lautet wie folgt:

ESU Co LLC
3625 Betty Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80917

Wir freuen uns sehr, an unserem neuen Standort mit grösserem Lager und verstärktem Team unseren Kunden in Nordamerika einen guten Kundenservice anbieten zu können.

Unsere Schwesterfirma in den USA ist umgezogen: Nach vielen Jahren verliessen wir Pennsylvania und sind ab sofort in Colorada zu Hause. Unsere neue Anschrift lautet wie folgt:

ESU Co LLC
3625 Betty Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80917

Wir freuen uns sehr, an unserem neuen Standort mit grösserem Lager und verstärktem Team unseren Kunden in Nordamerika einen guten Kundenservice anbieten zu können.

Under sleeper pads have been used for ballast protection and improved track geometry over more than 20 years, but a new contact pressure measurement technique has revealed significant differences in their ballast protection properties.

USA: Amtrak is undertaking $260m of track improvements and other infrastructure works on the Northeast Corridor this summer.

EUROPE: The Swedish and Norwegian armed forces and Norwegian infrastructure manager Bane Nor are to jointly procure wagons for the transport of tanks and other heavy military vehicles.

GERMANY: Porsche Automobil Holding is to invest ‘a low double-digit million amount’ in international train and coach company Flix as part of a co-investment with the EQT Future fund.

A major upgrading programme is in progress to enhance resilience, raise capacity and cut journey times on Network Rail’s busy east-west route through the Pennines between Manchester and Leeds. Murray Hughes investigates.