SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Railway Co has begun the prequalification process for two major contracts to be awarded for the Riyadh Rail Link project.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Ostrava transport operator DPO has awarded Bosch Engineering a KC37m contract to fit an anti-collision system to 38 Škoda 39T ForCity Smart trams.

INDIA: National High Speed Rail Corp Ltd has awarded Larsen & Toubro’s Transportation Infrastructure business a contract to supply and install ballastless track for the Mumbai – Ahmedabad high speed line.

EGYPT: Hitachi Rail has deployed centralised traffic control system to manage 19 stations on the busy Cairo to Alexandria main line.

POLAND: RegioJet is launching daily Warszawa – Kraków services on September 18, with Leo Express planning to extend its Praha – Kraków service to Warszawa next March, following regulatory approval.

AUSTRALIA: Responsibility for the operation of Adelaide’s trams returned to the government of South Australia at 03.00 on August 31, ending the privatisation put in place by the previous government.

CANADA: Genesee & Wyoming subsidiary Alberta Heartland Railway has agreed a long-term lease of land for the construction of a rail terminal near Edmonton.

SOUTH KOREA: Seoul municipality has announced that test runs will start this month for the 5·4 km, catenary-free Wirye Line tramway, with opening scheduled for next year.

News from the world rail freight market.

UK: Transport for Wales has introduced virtual reality training technology for train managers, enabling them to experience scenarios from a classroom before moving on to practical training.

CZECH REPUBLIC: The Ministry of Transport has selected RegioJet for one of the country’s largest PSO operating contracts to date, covering long-distance passenger services on five routes northeast of Praha.

The future of the German rail network is once again in the spotlight. With Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder describing DB’s situation as ‘dramatic’, our Senior Editor Chris Jackson explains why all eyes wil be on Berlin in September as a potentially major policy reset looms.

CANADA: The Alto high speed rail project is to benefit from a Major Projects Office which the government has established to identify projects that are in the national interest and streamline their assessment and approval to accelerate development.

NORTH AMERICA: North American Rail Solutions has announced a ‘strategic combination’ with ZA Construction to provide railway design, maintenance, repair, construction and support services in the USA and Canada.

SWITZERLAND: Metre-gauge operator Zentralbahn has awarded Stadler a contract to supply five more Adler electric multiple-units and three Fink units. These will provide additional capacity by 2030 to handle increasing leisure traffic including the growth of international tourism.

ROMANIA: The first of 29 InterRegio EMUs being supplied by Pesa for Romania’s ARF has been completed at the manufacturer’s Bydgoszcz plant.

ITALY: Firenze city council has approved the final design of a 6·1 km tram line to link Piazza Libertà on the existing network with Rovezzano main line station.

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

UK: A five‑year trial of the Breeze app, described as the UK’s first fully integrated, multi‑city Mobility‑as‑a‑Service transport app, is to end on October 31.

Numerous rail projects are under way across Italy, thanks to Covid recovery funding, but slow progress means that some schemes may not meet the EU deadlines for completion. Toma Bačić investigates.