AUSTRIA: Stadler and Austrian Federal Railways have unveiled the first Servicejet multifunctional firefighting and rescue train, which the manufacturer says is tailor-made ‘for the worst-case scenario’ of a fire in a tunnel.

SOUTH AFRICA: Leasing company Traxtion has completed a major overhaul of five Class 39 diesel locomotives which it acquired from South Africa’s Transnet Freight Rail as part of a strategy of expanding its fleet to meet a growing demand for rail freight services in Sub-Saharan Africa.

UK: Trenitalia-owned Essex to London commuter operator c2c has awarded Alstom an £8·8m contract to repaint and repair its Class 357 Electrostar EMU fleet.

SWEDEN: Vossloh has signed an agreement to acquire Scandinavian Track Group, which provides rail infrastructure maintenance services in the ‘fast-growing and strategically important’ Swedish market.

EGYPT: The first of the Velaro EGY high speed trainsets which Siemens Mobility is to supply to Egypt is undergoing dynamic testing at the Wegberg-Wildenrath circuit in Germany ahead of delivery later this year.

INDIA: Wabtec Corp officially opened a US$18m rail component and subsystem manufacturing campus at Rohtak northwest of New Delhi in Haryana on May 20.

UK: A national conference dedicated to safeguarding staff and customers on the rail network was hosted by South Western Railway at Lloyd’s of London on May 10.

UK: Virgin Group has applied to the Office of Rail & Road for train paths which would enable it to return to the rail network as an open access operator.

HUNGARY: IT, logistics and energy company Acemil has signed a co-operation agreement with CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co covering the purchase of locomotives and the joint establishment of production capacity in Hungary.

UK: Buckland Group has brought together its wagon manufacturing subsidiary WH Davis and support services businesses Davis Wagon Services and Yellow Rail under the Buckland Rail brand.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Škoda Group has acquired 100% of the shares of tram, metro and trolleybus electrical component supplier Cegelec from Vinci Energies. Cegelec will operate under the name Electric Components as part of the Škoda Electric business.

The Philippine Railways Institute in the Manila area is training staff to support the expansion of the city’s rail network. But as PRI Managing Director Anneli Lontoc explains to Benjámin Zelki, there are wider ambitions for the centre to become a training hub for the Asia Pacific region.

UK: Network Rail has appointed 15 contractors to its Eastern Routes Partnership framework, which is designed to enable it to directly award key infrastructure contracts worth £3·5bn during Control Period 7, with the option to extend for CP8.

News from the world rail freight market.

USA: Railmark Industrial Railway is to take over operation of an 18 km freight branch in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, which interchanges with Norfolk Southern and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.

AUSTRALIA: SCT Logistics has signed a multi-year agreement to use Trapeze Group’s Rail Workforce Management software to automate a range of complex staff and fleet resource allocation processes.

SIERRA LEONE: President Julius Maada Bio attended the unveiling of 10 diesel locomotives which CRRC Ziyang has supplied for the 197 km railway linking Leone Rock Metal Group’s New Tonkoliri Iron Mine with the port of Pepel.

DENMARK: Infrastructure manager Banedanmark has announced a revised timetable for the deployment of ETCS in eastern Denmark, following further delays to the national Signalling Programme.

UK: Industry bodies and drivers’ union ASLEF have welcomed the start of consultation on a government proposal to lower the minimum age to become a train driver in Great Britain from 20 to 18.

FRANCE: Paris transport operator RATP and national railway SNCF have transferred the management of RER Line A to a new control centre.