Having dismantled a suburban railway and aborted a monorail scheme, the Brazilian city of Salvador is now developing a tram network using second-hand trams and track assets from Cuiabá. Ana Cláudia Nascimento, CEO of state transport operator CTB, explains the plans to Benjámin Zelki.

EUROPE: Eurostar is to cease offering the SmartCheck biometric check-in service at London St Pancras International station in February, but says it has boosted capacity in preparation for the introduction of the EU Entry-Exit System.

GERMANY: Max Bögl has taken delivery of a 1·8 MW Vossloh Rolling Stock DE18 diesel-electric locomotive for shunting and short distance freight operations at its Sengenthal site in Bayern.

News from the world rail freight market.

UK: The Department for Transport has announced that the future Great British Railways will sell tickets online, while retaining a ‘thriving’ private sector market where third party ticket retailers can compete in an ‘open and fair’ manner.

SPAIN: The Ministry of Transport & Sustainable Mobility is to award Ineco contracts to supervise maintenance on more than 3 000 km of high speed line.

FINLAND: Exel Composites says it is the first company to obtain the latest EN16843 certification for a glass fibre composite rail joint.

CHILE: Rail logistics company Transap has ordered four Wabtec C30ACi diesel locomotives as part of its fleet renewal plans.

UK: Positive Traction has been awarded an order to rebuild a Class 08 diesel shunter used by Heidelberg Materials at Whatley Quarry into an 08e zero-emission battery locomotive.

HUNGARY: Minister of Construction & Transport János Lázár announced a series of structural changes and improvements to railway services in Hungary at a press conference held in Budapest on January 8.

NEW ZEALAND: Depot safety control specialist FirstClass Safety & Control has deployed depot protection systems at two KiwiRail sites in collaboration with Freightquip.

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.