COMPUTER: Syslogic has launched its AI Railway Computer RSL A3, which it says is the first onboard computer for rolling stock to be based on the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier Industrial system on module.

CONGO: Mining group Sapro has finalised an agreement with the Thelo DB joint venture for the construction and operation of a 412 km heavy haul railway to connect its Mayoko iron ore mine with the deepwater port of Pointe-Noire on the Atlantic coast.

BRAZIL: Work is expected to start later this year to establish a Centre of Excellence for Railway Technology in Anápolis, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Infrastructure and the state government of Goiás on July 15.

USA: A vision for modernising the 735 km main line linking Washington DC with Boston via Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York was outlined by the Northeast Corridor Commission on July 14.

AFGHANISTAN: The first shipment of Chinese commercial and transit goods to arrive in the current solar year was delivered to the commercial port of Hairatan on July 11, having been moved by rail from Urumqi via Uzbekistan.

Hybrid battery-electric trains could be running on the Berlin – Neuruppin – Wittenberge route by 2028, according to a study undertaken for the District of Ostprignitz-Ruppin by the Innoverse transport consultancy.

News from the global railway supply chain

USA: Spanish national operator RENFE has signed a contract to act as early operator of the Texas Central high speed line between Dallas and Houston.

CANADA: A financing package for the modernisation of Canada’s first Indigenous owned and operated railway has been announced by Tshiuetin Rail Transportation, Canada Infrastructure Bank, Transport Canada and the government of Québec.

UKRAINE: National nuclear energy company Energoatom has completed the 337m hryvnia rehabilitation of the 43 km out-of-use single track railway between Vilcha and Yaniv in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, connecting its Centralised Spent Fuel Storage Facility to the national rail network.

SNCF Réseau’s Aix-en-Provence – Marseille line will be partly electrified in 2022-24 to allow the operation of local services by battery-electric multiple-units. Murray Hughes investigates.

RUSSIA: Transmashholding’s Tver plant has obtained certification for the latest version of the double-deck sleeping cars which it is supplying to Federal Passenger Co under a February 2019 framework agreement. This covers the delivery of up to 3 730 coaches of various types by 2025.

UK: Commitments to electrification, network expansion and modal shift are included in the Decarbonising transport: a better, greener Britain plan published by the government on July 14, along with the selective deployment of hydrogen and battery trains.

EUROPE: The economic situation for EU railways shows very little sign of improvement, according to the Community of European Railway & Infrastructure Companies’ Covid Impact Tracker.

Announcing a ‘wholesale shift’ from diesel to zero-carbon modes including electric and hydrogen traction, Go-Ahead says it is aiming to achieve a fully decarbonised rail fleet by 2035, and to switch its 5 000-strong UK bus fleet to zero emission vehicles.

NEPAL: Rail freight movements between India and Nepal are set to increase following the signing of a cross-acceptance agreement as part of India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy to enhance regional connectivity.

GERMANY: Bayern railway agency BEG has awarded Die Länderbahn a contract to continue operating a trial passenger service on the Gotteszell – Viechtach line.

FRANCE: The first of 30 electro-diesel trainsets for cross-border services between the French region of Grand Est and the German Länder of Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland was demonstrated to local politicians and officials in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse on July 10.

GERMANY: An agreement been signed for a Siemens Mobility Mireo Plus H hydrogen fuel cell train to be trialled on Bayerische Regiobahn’s Augsburg – Füssen route.

UK: Louise Cheeseman stepped down as Managing Director of FirstGroup’s open access operator Hull Trains on July 12, ahead of joining Transport for London as Director of Buses on August 2.