ASIA: Turkey has agreed to fund reconstruction of 30 km of railway in Syria which was destroyed during the civil war, Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu announced following a meeting between transport officials from Turkey, Syria and Jordan.

ITALY: Stadler has unveiled a 950 mm gauge battery trainset for Ferrovie Appulo Lucane, and signed a contract to supply two hydrogen trains to Ferrovia Circumetnea which also uses the so-called ’Italian metre gauge’.

Union Pacific’s $85bn proposal to acquire Norfolk Southern has reignited merger speculation across the US rail industry, with activist investors urging rival operators to explore consolidation options amid changing market dynamics. However, this M&A frenzy could yet prove a risky distraction for the sector, warns Senior Editor Chris Jackson.

EUROPE: The European Shift Enabler Portal for Freight project has been completed with the launch of a website designed to make intermodal rail freight more accessible, transparent and competitive across Europe.

AUSTRALIA: Detailed negotiations are under way with preferred bidder TransitLinX consortium for the Linewide contract package covering rolling stock, fit out and 15-year operations of Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop East.

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

UK: Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems has completed a ‘significant’ interim door overhaul for the c2c Class 357 Electrostar EMU fleet in a prpject that was ’a significant challenge, both in scale and complexity’.

USA: The Gateway Tunnel programme linking New York and New Jersey, the next phase of New York’s Second Avenue Subway and Chicago’s metro Red Line metro extension are all projects facing funding cuts as the Trump administration seeks to crack down on what it perceives as ‘unconstitutional’ DEI policies in ...

EUROPE: Combined transport assocation UIRR has published an updated position paper on the EU’s forthcoming Rail Infrastructure Capacity Management Regulation.

FINLAND: Helsinki metropolitan area transport operator Pääkaupunkiseudun Kaupunkiliikenne has selected Stadler for a major contract to supply and maintain 63 Tango Nordic trams customised to the city’s requirements, with options for up to 120 more.

INDIA: Fair Friend Group company MAG IAS has been awarded turnkey contract to supply a railway axle production line with a capacity of 60 000 axles/year for the Jupiter Tatravagonka Railwheel Factory being developed at Khurda in Odisha.

CHINA: Hong Kong’s MTR Corp held a dancing lion eye-dotting ceremony to bring good fortune to the construction of the Northern Link Main Line which is now officially underway, and to mark the start of detailed design for the Northern Link Spur Line.

UK: Tarmac has opened an aggregates materials depot on a previously unused rail-served site in Rugby which it has leased from Network Rail.

GERMANY: Stadler is to supply 36 customised Flirt XL electric multiple-units for three Rhein-Ruhr passenger services which VIAS Rail is to operate under a contract awarded by transport authority VRR.

GERMANY: A diesel shunter which has been converted to the direct combustion of hydrogen is on test to assess the viability of reducing carbon emissions from existing locomotives with many years of life remaining.

ETHIOPIA: Ethiopian Railways Corp and Italian company COIPA Italia have signed a framework agreement for strategic co-operation to modernise the country’s railways and support the revival of the Awash – Kombolcha railway project.

News from the world rail freight market.

UK: Manchester light rail operator Keolis Amey Metrolink has worked with University of Birmingham spin-out EneRail to optimise energy consumption on the section of the network linking Manchester Victoria with Bury Interchange.

AUSTRIA: ‘If we need skilled employees, it is up to the company to train them and invest in the qualification of its young talent’, Plasser & Theurer CEO Johannes Max-Theurer said at the opening of a €1m apprentice training centre at the track machine manufacturer’s Linz site.

BR 93 NEM Basis Arnold Treib-Räder von der GFN BR 56, Spurkränze auf 0,5 mm abgedreht Vor-und Nachläufer von der GFN BR 23 mit abgedrehten Spurkränzen Rahmenverblendung mit Schutzblechen vorne und hinten Pufferbohlendetaillierung, Laternen ...