UK: A study has found that international passenger capacity at London St Pancras station could be more than doubled to improve the user experience and potentially facilitate new train services.

CANADA: The project to relaunch Northlander passenger services between Toronto and a future Timmins-Porcupine station is advancing, with the province of Ontario awarding a contract for station works and releasing images of the what future trains will look like.

FRANCE: National operator SNCF Voyageurs has unveiled the first of the Grand Est région’s TER 2N NG double-deck electric multiple-units to undergo mid-life refurbishment as part of the national OPTER programme.

MOROCCO: Hyundai Rotem is in advanced negotiations as part of an ongoing tendering process for the supply up to 150 trainsets for Morocco’s national railway ONCF, a representative of the South Korean company confirmed to Railway Gazette International at the Rail Industry Summit exhibition in Casablanca on December 10.

MEXICO: The government has announced plans to invest 157bn pesos in 2025 for the construction of new passenger railways and the development of freight operations on some parts of the network.

Following FirstGroup’s announcement that it is to order more trains to support its growth drive in the open access market, First Rail Managing Director Steve Montgomery explains the next steps to Rail Business UK.

MOROCCO: Minister for Transport & Logistics Abdessamad Kayouh has announced that a second train assembly facility is to be built to serve the needs of national operator ONCF.

UK: VTG Rail UK has secured a 10-year wagon leasing agreement with new customer Alvance British Aluminium, which will take on 20 JPA powder tank wagons retrofitted with VTG’s iWagon technology.

CANADA: VIA Rail Canada has issued a requests for qualification for a contract to supply more than 40 locomotives and 313 coaches of nine types to replace its Long-Distance, Regional & Remote train fleet.

BRAZIL: The Brazilian Northeast Development Fund (Fundo de Desenvolvimento do Nordeste) has agreed to lend R$3∙6bn to help finance construction of the Ferrovia Transnordestina project.

USA: Southern California Regional Rail Authority has awarded Alstom a combined Train Operation & Maintenance Services contract for its Metrolink passenger rail services.

FRANCE: Hamburg Commercial Bank has acted as mandated lead arranger for the financing of 12 Alstom Avelia Horizon high speed trains ordered by new market entrant Proxima.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Infrastructure manager SŽ has opened a 316 m long reinforced concrete bridge over the Orlík reservoir near Červená nad Vltavou on the Tábor – Písek line.

UK: Swiss electrification firm Furrer+Frey has chosen Nottingham as the base for its expanding UK operations, saying it will bring highly skilled engineering jobs to the East Midlands.

HUNGARY: State railway group MÁV-Volán has signed a long-term agreement to lease a further 13 diesel locomotives formerly owned by Denmark’s DSB from Swedish leasing company Nordic Re-Finance. They will be used by MÁV-Start and MÁV Rail Tours.

News from the world rail freight market.

BRAZIL: ENSCO Rail has deployed its Autonomous Track Geometry Measurement System on the metre gauge Vitória a Minas iron ore railway operated by mining company Vale.

EUROPE: A digital tool which aims to streamline the freight locomotive leasing business by matching operators’ demand with leasing companies’ availability has gone live.

UK: FirstGroup is to expand its open access fleet with an order for 14 Class 80X trainsets from Hitachi Rail.

BRAZIL: Following a series of technical site visits in November representatives of national land transportation agency ANTT announced that they expected the Ferrovia de Integraçao Centro-Oeste (Central West Integration Railway) project to be 32% complete by the end of 2024.