UK: The Office of Rail & Road has directed high speed line concessionaire HS1 Ltd to lower the access charges for passenger and freight trains on the route from London to the Channel Tunnel.

EUROPE: The national passenger train operators of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have launched co-ordinated services to make it more practical to travel between Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn by rail.

ASIA: President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov and representatives of the Chinese and Uzbek governments officially launched construction of the US$8bn China – Kyrgyzstan – Uzbekistan railway with a ceremony at Tosh-Kutchu in the Jalal-Abad region of Kyrgyzstan on December 27. Main works are to begin in July.

USA: Swiss plant manufacturer Matisa is ready to deliver a novel track renewals train to Amtrak to support work to modernise the US national passenger operator’s upgrading of the 735 km Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington DC.

As celebrations in Britain this year mark 200 years since the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, our Consultant Editor Murray Hughes reflects on his 50 years writing for Railway Gazette International and assesses where the rail sector might go in the coming half-century.

News from the world rail freight market.

USA: All subsidiaries and divisions of railway sector component supplier A Stucki Company began operating under the parent company’s name on January 1.

CROATIA: Minister of the Sea, Transport & Infrastructure Oleg Butković attended a ceremony on December 18 to mark the completion of work to renew and electrify the Vinkovci – Vukovar line.

EUROPE: Finland’s VR FleetCare has won an international tender to design and build wagons for the transport of tanks and other heavy military equipment in Arctic conditions.

FRANCE: SNCF Voyageurs has awarded CAF a firm order to supply a further 22 Oxygène trainsets for inter-city services between Bordeaux and Marseille.

SOUTH AFRICA: Following months of negotiations, the city of Cape Town and Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa have signed a Service Level Plan which Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says will ‘lay the foundation for future rail devolution’.

This week’s news from the global railway supply chain.

UK: MLL Telecom has entered the transport sector by winning a a three-year contract to provide TransPennine Express with a managed software defined wide area network

www.1zu160.net-Newsmeldung: Modellbahnkalender 2025

MAURITANIA: The African Development Bank has approved a US$150m loan to state-owned iron ore firm Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière to support a US$467m programme to double the capacity of its heavy haul railway by 2030. Plans include the acquisition of up to 36 locomotives and 1 743 wagons.

MAURITANIA: The African Development Bank has approved a US$150m loan to state-owned iron ore firm Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière to support a US$467m programme to double the capacity of its heavy haul railway by 2030. Plans include the acquisition of up to 36 locomotives and 1 743 wagons.

USA: Chicago commuter operator Metra’s legacy 900 MHz communications system is to be upgraded to the dot16 standard, in what suppliers Siemens Mobility and Ondas Networks say is a ‘milestone’ first for a major railway.

USA: Chicago commuter operator Metra’s legacy 900 MHz communications system is to be upgraded to the dot16 standard, in what suppliers Siemens Mobility and Ondas Networks say is a ‘milestone’ first for a major railway.

SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways trains are using electricity entirely from renewable sources from January 1.

As the rail sector increasingly embraces longer trains to drive efficiencies, advanced telematics are helping to ensure safety and reduce maintenance costs, opening up the prospect of intelligent and more sustainable rail freight transport.