COLOMBIA: Siemens Mobility has selected Spanish company GMV to supply service planning and vehicle location technology for the Metro de la 80 light rail project in Medellín.

CZECH REPUBLIC: National operator České Dráhy has put into service the first full rakes of ComfortJet coaches, adding the missing driving trailer and restaurant cars to sets which had until now been operating in short formation.

News from the world rail freight market.

No fewer than 28 cities in France have built modern light rail networks in the 40 years since Nantes turned the tide on post-war car-centricity. With 115 km of new line now under construction and 276 vehicles on order, the outlook remains bright, even if political headwinds are starting to ...

Advances in technology, particularly data analytics, are transforming Mobility as a Service from a failed experiment into a more pragmatic and sustainable real-time travel companion.

AUSTRIA: The first generation of Austrian Federal Railways’ Railjet push-pull trainsets are undergoing mid-life refurbishment after more than 15 years of service.

UK: The Department for Transport has told the Transport Select Committee that service optimisation will be prioritised over infrastructure investment, but equivocation over future projects is already pushing rail suppliers to embrace export opportunities instead.

Recent legislation has paved the way for the development of high-performing multimodal transport networks in 24 French conurbations, centred around rail as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Reinhard Christeller explains.

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

USA: Virginia Passenger Rail Authority launches a $264·5m project to extend the Washington DC – Roanoke Amtrak service over a Norfolk Southern-owned line to the university city of Christiansburg.

SLOVAKIA: National operator ZSSK has award Stadler a contract to supply more Kiss double-deck electric multiple-units.

GERMANY: ‘Today we completed the largest corporate transaction in the history of Deutsche Bahn and the logistics industry’, DB CEO Dr Richard Lutz said when the sale of the DB Schenker global logistics business to Danish group DSV was finalised on April 30.

PHILIPPINES: Metro Line 7 concessionaire SMC MRT-7 Corp signed a 150bn won, 10-year contract with South Korea’s national operator Korail on April 22 for the operation and maintenance of Manila metro Line 7.

CROATIA: HŽ Infrastruktura has awarded Strabag a €55m contract to modernise the line between the Slovenian border and Sveti Petar u Šumi in Istria.

USA: Amtrak is to launch a twice-daily Mardi Gras Service passenger train linking New Orleans with Mobile via the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

UK: London St Pancras Highspeed and the Railway Industry Association have hosted an industry event at Ebbsfleet International station to inform the supply chain about business opportunities over the next five years.

Using autonomous pods to transport parcel shipments and other goods on existing tram infrastructure could help to mitigate the traffic jams caused by growing volumes of delivery vehicles, suggests Fragile CEO Lukas Kauer.

FRANCE: SNCF Voyageurs has unveiled the first refurbished Tango high speed trainset and announced new destinations as part of its plans to increase the Ouigo low-cost brand’s share of the domestic high speed rail market from 20% to 30% by 2030.

This week’s round-up of news from the urban transport sector.

UK: Network Rail is trialling the use of unmanned aerial vehicles flying beyond visual line of sight to enable the faster inspection of railway routes.