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

UK: More people with colour blindness will be able to work in safety critical railway roles such as train driving as a result of research undertaken by the Rail Safety & Standards Board at the request of drivers’ union ASLEF.

EUROPE: The Association of European Rail Rolling stock Lessors has called for the more co-ordinated deployment of ERTMS, changes to subsidy policies and measures to ensure life-time support of vehicles. It says these measures are needed to avoid disrupting procurement and to avoid rail pricing itself out of the freight ...

GERMANY: The first three Stuttgart S-Bahn electric multiple-units to be refurbished have been unveiled by operator DB Regio and transport authority VRS ahead of their return to passenger service in February.

MOROCCO: ONCF is working on the development of RER-branded suburban rail networks around Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech for launch by the end of the decade.

NORTH MACEDONIA: Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski has inaugurated the first section of a future rail route between Skopje and Sofia which is being developed as part of pan-European Corridor VIII to link the Adriatic and the Black seas.

SPAIN: Drivers entering the cabs of RENFE’s Series 106 Avril high speed trainsets on January 1 discovered the entire fleet could not be activated.

UK: Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander set out five priorities for Shadow Great British Railways in her first major rail-focused speech in the role.

UK: FirstGroup has set out its case for retaining a ‘thriving’ open access sector as part of the restructured railway, arguing that privately-funded services without government contracts can drive growth across all operators including those to be controlled by Great British Railways.

UK: Ahead of consultation on the government’s rail reform bill, operating group association Rail Partners and its five freight members have published A Greener Track making four proposals to support growth.

SOUTH KOREA: The national network has expanded with the opening of two strategic links in recent weeks.

CANADA: CN has unveiled a 3 200 hp diesel-battery hybrid locomotive developed with Knoxville Locomotive Works.

ITALY: The first of 38 electric multiple-units ordered by the Lazio region have been unveiled at Titagarh Firema’s Caserta factory.

FRANCE: Funding has been finalised for the first phase of the Ligne Nouvelle Provence d’Azur project to upgrade the busy Marseille - Nice corridor to support a 66% increase in the number of daily services.

High speed line concessionaire HS1 Ltd has been working with partners to assess an AI-supported digital twin model that can help integrate multiple aspects of its business.

News from the world rail freight market.

UK: Alstom has announced the appointment of Rob Whyte as Managing Director UK & Ireland with effect from February. He was previously Managing Director in the Nordics.

DENMARK: Goa-based industrial group Kineco has acquired Danish train sanitary system supplier Semvac from Wabtec UK in an all-cash transaction.

Strainlabs’ IoT condition monitoring technology is being trialled to monitor the condition of magnets installed on the Øresund Bridge linking Denmark with Sweden.

INTERNATIONAL: Hitachi Rail has agreed to acquire Balfour Beatty’s rail asset monitoring technology business Omnicom. Hitachi said this would form a ‘key strategic pillar’ of the Hyper Mobility Asset Expert platform launched at InnoTrans 2024.