GERMANY: Leasing company Northrail has signed a full-service agreement to provide RTB Cargo with three Siemens Mobility Smarton electric locomotives for up to five years. Announcing the contract on August 20, Northrail said the locos would be delivered by spring 2020 for use on automotive trains within Germany. Paribus Group’s Northrail business

AISA: The Transasia Express passenger service between Tehran and Ankara has been relaunched after a four-year suspension. The first departure left the Iranian capital on August 7, watched by Managing Director of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Saeed Rasouli and the Turkish ambassador. The train is scheduled to run once per

As printed from the January 1972 edition of The Railway Magazine, take a look at this story by Peter A Hogarth about the Barrow Hill roundhouse. On Sunday, September 26 1971, British Railways held one of its increasingly popular “open days” at Barrow Hill diesel servicing depot, Staveley, Chesterfield. Despite

UK: Network Rail is to begin public consultation this summer on plans to rebuild and electrify a 13 km section of the trans-Pennine corridor between Manchester and York via Leeds.The plans form part of the infrastructure manager’s £2·9bn Transpennine Upgrade programme, which is intended to modernise the route by adding capacity,

Franchising is ‘set to continue’ according to industry chiefTHE future of franchising is likely to change, but not be scrapped, according to Abellio UK managing director Dominic Booth. His company took over the East Midlands franchise on Sunday and held an official launch yesterday, and the contract may be the

I AM a driver with a UK train operator and raised the issue of the state of the lineside about eight years ago with Network Rail, citing the points that both The RM and David Nattress made.   Their answer?  “We and our contractors clean-up after every job and we recovered

SLOVAKIA: The ALLRAIL group of new entrants to the rail market has expressed concerned about tender for the operation of passenger services on the Žilina – Rajec line, saying it believes that the process favours state incumbent ZSSK and ‘it seems that real competition is not wanted’. The tender published by

INDIA: The government has approved the construction of a 108 km rail link between Kolhapur and Vaibhavwadi, for completion in 2023-24 at an estimated cost of Rs34·4bn. Connecting Central Railway’s current Shri Chhatrapati Shahumaharaj terminus at Kolhapur with Vaibhavwadi Road station on the Roha – Madgaon section of the Konkan Railway, the

EUROPE: Citing a significant increase in demand for international passenger services during the first half of 2019, Swiss Federal Railways announced on August 19 that it intended to strengthen its long-term co-operation with Austria’s ÖBB and expand the provision of both daytime and overnight trains. Suggesting that increased awareness of climate

AUSTRALIA: Public Transport Authority of Western Australia announced on August 19 that it had selected Alstom Transport Australia as preferred bidder to supply the next generation of electric multiple-units to operate on the Transperth network serving the state capital. Details of the A$1·6bn contract are expected to be finalised by