CHINA: The 125 km Chizhou – Huangshan high speed line through the mountains and valleys of Anhui province opened on April 26.

USA: Spanish wheel lathe and machine tool manufacturer Danobat has acquired Michigan based Delta Wheel Truing Solutions, which designs and manufactures rolling stock wheel re-profiling equipment and has several patents as well as an established customer base.

UK: ‘We want to continuously ensure that as many local people as possible have the opportunity to join the rail industry, regardless of their previous skill set or background’, Lumo Managing Director Martijn Gilbert said when he announced that 95% of the open access operator’s workforce began as apprentices.

USA: Activist hedge fund investor Ancora Holdings has won three seats on the board at Norfolk Southern in a vote at the annual shareholder meeting on May 9, ousting the railroad’s Board Chair, Governance Committee Chair and Compensation Committee Chair.

June’s European elections loomed large over the Connecting Europe Days in Brussels at the start of April, as EU policymakers and industry leaders discussed funding priorities for the next multi-annual framework and the future of the TEN-T network. Nick Kingsley shares his key takeaways.

INTERNATIONAL: Spanish state-owned engineering consultancy Ineco has told Railway Gazette International that the long-proposed Spain – Morocco inter-continental tunnel ’is highly complex and is currently undergoing feasibility studies’.

SOUTH KOREA: Korail put its latest generation of high speed train into commercial service on May 1.

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

INTERNATIONAL: Presenting the company’s results for the year to March 31 2024 on May 8, Chairman & CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge said Alstom ‘recorded a strong rebound during the second half of the year’.

EGYPT: Siemens Mobility presented one of the 94 Desiro HC electric multiple-units that it is supplying for Egypt to the international press at its Wegberg-Wildenrath Test & Validation Centre on May 8.

EUROPE: Lithuania’s national train operator LTG Group and Ukrainian Railways have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop an intermodal freight service from the Baltic port of Klaipėda to Kyiv via Poland.

RUSSIA: Transmashholding’s Ivolga 4·0 electric multiple-units were put into service on Moskva Central Diameter Line D4 with a ceremony on May 2.

UK: Policy changes and technical developments which could boost ridership by making it easier to buy train tickets were discussed when representatives of independent retailer Trainline and distribution technology company SilverRail were questioned by the House of Commons Transport Committee on May 8 as part of its scrutiny of the ...

CZECH REPUBLIC: Škoda Group has sent the first 15Ev3 battery-electric multiple unit for trials at the Velim test centre ahead of deployment in the Moravskoslezský region.

FRANCE: An 8 km largely underground extension of Paris RER Line E from Magenta-Gare du Nord to Nanterre-La Folie (Hauts de Seine) has opened.

FRANCE: An 8 km largely underground extension of Paris RER Line E from Magenta-Gare du Nord to Nanterre-La Folie (Hauts de Seine) has opened.

SPAIN: High speed rail infrastructure manager ADIF Alta Velocidad has awarded Ferrovial and Acciona a €164m contract to fit out the new Murcia del Carmen station.

UK: Communication Access UK has accredited East Midlands Railway as being Communication Accessible. This follows the train operator’s efforts to provide enhanced communication choices for customers, and to provide staff with the skills to utilise assistive technology effectively.

IRELAND: The first battery-electric multiple-unit for the DART+ programme to enhance commuter train services around Dublin has been unveiled at Alstom’s Katowice factory in Poland.

MALAYSIA: Dhaya Maju Infrastructure (Asia) has awarded Siemens Mobility a contract to supply signalling for the Klang Valley Double Track Phase 2 project.