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.

The reopening earlier this year of a short branch line in the Sudety mountains is the latest indication of significant progress being made to enhance regional passenger services in the Dolnośląskie region of southwest Poland. Mike Bent reports.

GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn has awarded contracts to nine companies for work on the reactivation of the disused Siemensbahn as part of the Berlin S-Bahn network.

UK: The Scottish government has awarded West Fraser Ltd a Freight Facilities Grant of up to £3m towards the construction of a £11·2m rail freight terminal at its wood panel board factory at Dalcross near Inverness.

INTERNATIONAL: Cubic Transportation Systems had added open payment capabilities to its Umo Mobility payment platform, offering passengers the ability to pay for travel by tapping a contactless bank card, mobile wallet or smartwatch.

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

UK: On-train mobile phone and wi-fi connectivity on the East Coast Main Line has been improved with the installation of additional phone masts between Newcastle and Berwick-upon-Tweed.

TURKEY: Akdoğan Train Cargo has become the first Turkish company to order Siemens Mobility Vectron locomotives, placing an order for five multi-system electric locos for use on international routes to EU destinations.

BULGARIA: Škoda Group has unveiled one of the trainsets it is building for the Sofia metro.