FRANCE: Former Prime Minister and RATP Chief Executive Jean Castex promised to ‘fix the foundations’ of SNCF as he was confirmed in the role of President of the national railway holding group.

EUROPE: Virgin Group has set out more details of its planned Channel Tunnel high speed train services and its funding partners, with founder Sir Richard Branson saying ’it’s time to end this 30-year monopoly and bring some Virgin magic to the cross-Channel route’.

UK: The rail regulator has approved Virgin Trains’ application for depot access which it needs under its plans to launch high speed passenger train services from London through the Channel Tunnel to Paris and Brussels from 2030.

ITALY: Regional operator Trenord and MerMec have introduced a health and diagnostic tool known as Trainscanner.

HUNGARY: The last train ran on the Debrecen – Nagykereki line on October 19, with expansion of a nearby battery plant set to incorporate part of the existing railway alignment.

TAIWAN: The Executive Yuan has approved the initial 8·4 km section of the Blue Line monorail to be built in Tainan, north of Kaohsiung.

USA: Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s Silver Line has been launched with a series of celebratory events.

UK: The £175m Beaulieu Park station on the Great Eastern Main Line has opened to support the Chelmsford Garden Community development of more than 10 000 new homes.

INDONESIA: MRT Jakarta has awarded Sumitomo Corp and Nippon Sharyo a ¥17bn contract to supply eight six-car metro trainsets for Phase 2A of the Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit North-South Line project.

UK: The Railway Industry Association and the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers have agreed to work together ‘as appropriate’ on rail policy matters, to provide mutual support on external affairs and to cross-promote their initiatives.

SOUTH KOREA: Revenue services have commenced on a new line linking Mokpo in the southwest of the country with Boseong.

This week’s round-up of news from the urban transport sector.

UK: FirstGroup has made initial submissions of three separate applications to the Office of Rail & Road for new and extended open access passenger train services which would be operated under its Lumo brand.

USA: Utah Transit Authority has ordered a further 20 Stadler Citylink light rail vehicles for TRAX services around Salt Lake City, taking its total order to 40.

ITALY: Revenue services have started running on the additional pair of tracks that have been built to augment the existing formation between Voltri and Sampierdarena stations in Genova.

Advances in the design of materials used for insulation and HVAC systems on trains can help rail operators to reduce their energy use by up to 20% in real-world conditions. Tom Merton, Technical Manager at Armacell, explains how the company’s range is evolving to cater to the specialist needs of ...

POLAND: Rolling stock investment, leasing and asset management services company Northrail has established a Polish subsidiary as part of its plans for systematic expansion in central and eastern Europe.

GERMANY: Wagon leasing company GATX Rail Europe says the opening of its technical and safety training centre at Lehrte marks ‘the start of a new chapter in how we transfer expertise across the company’.

DENMARK: Trams have returned to København after 53 years, with music, family entertainment and a day of free travel marking the opening of the first phase of the Hovedstadens Letbane line.

SOUTH KOREA: The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport has confirmed the start of testing of a hydrogen multiple-unit prototype from December 2027 as part of a 32·1bn won national research and development project.