FINLAND: Škoda Transtech has filed a legal complaint following the disqualification of its bid for a contract to supply up to 183 trams to Helsinki.

FRANCE: Région Sud has selected SNCF Voyageurs for the contract to operate the Lot 3 package of Zou! branded regional passenger train services.

MOROCCO: King Mohammed VI has launched construction of Casablanca Sud interchange station, initiating a 20bn dirham programme to create a comprehensive suburban rail network serving the city by 2030.

UK: London to the Channel Tunnel high speed line concessionaire London St Pancras Highspeed has appointed Mott MacDonald as sole strategic partner under a three-year Sustainable Asset Management Framework.

USA: Californian commuter operator Caltrain is to be paid for the power its electric trains return to the grid, after regenerative braking was classified as a renewable generation facility.

CANADA: The Ontario government has reached an agreement-in-principle to purchase land from freight railway CN to enable it to construct dedicated tracks for GO passenger train services on the route between Toronto and Kitchener.

NETHERLANDS: The Port of Rotterdam Authority, railway infrastructure manager ProRail and contractor Swietelsky Rail Benelux have begun construction of a yard to facilitate the growth of container traffic from the Maasvlakte area of the port.

NIGERIA: Traxport Rail Services is developing plans to use modern gas-fuelled locomotives and advanced operations management tools to launch open access freight trains transporting LNG in the rail corridor linking the southern port of Lagos with the northern industrial city of Kano.

GERMANY: DB and manufacturer Talgo has unveiled an ICE L inter-city trainset at Berlin Ostbahnhof, saying the fleet would set standards for accessibility and family friendliness.

IRAN: Mapna Group’s rolling stock business Wagon Pars has won a contract to supply 60 light rail vehicles for Mashhad Urban Railway’s light metro Line 1.

News from the world rail freight market.

UK: More than 200 members attended the Chartered Institution of Railway Operators’ fifth Rail Ops conference, the first of the annual learning, discussion and networking events to be held in-person.

The International Union of Railways is urging more railways to adopt Nature-based Solutions as a means to enhance the resilience of infrastructure in an era when both the natural world and man-made assets are under severe pressure from climate change.

Facing increasing pressure on both cost and deliverability grounds, the Rail Baltica project to build a standard gauge spine through the Baltic States is now to be delivered in two phases. Toma Bačić explains.

Norfolk Southern is among the US railroads looking afresh at the latest iteration of the composite sleeper. Greg Janson, President of supplier Triton Ties, explains to Nick Kingsley how a combination of recycled plastic and glass fibre material can offer durability and environmental gains compared to using wooden or concrete ...

AUSTRALIA: Victoria’s Minister for Public & Active Transport Gabrielle Williams has officially opened the depot in Melbourne where Alstom will maintain 100 G Glass trams which it is supplying for the world’s largest tram network.

GABON: Windhoff has supplied five battery-powered TeleTrac RW100AEM shunters and a cable drum wagon to Comilog’s manganese mine at Moanda, where they move trains of up to 130 wagons.

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

UK: Network Rail and the Chartered Institution of Railway Operators have launched a weather learning programme, which is to strengthen meteorological knowledge among operational and other staff to enable more confident and informed decision-making during adverse weather conditions.

SWITZERLAND: Wagon owners remain concerned about changes to the rules governing freight trains passing through the Gotthard Base Tunnel. They say these have been imposed unilaterally by the Swiss authorities and pose a risk to the viability of pan-European rail freight.