UK: Network Rail announced on June 25 the award of 17 framework contracts for signalling works with a total estimated value of £215m. The contracts cover ‘minor’ signalling works including refurbishment and component replacement. Network Rail CP6 Minor Signalling framework contracts Route Value Contractors Western £25m-£75m Amey, Balfour Beatty, Linbrooke

UK: Plans for a Blackpool – London open access service are ‘firmly on track’, with the launch now expected in spring 2020, Grand Central said on June 24. In June last year the Office of Rail & Road granted Alliance Rail Holdings’ Great North Western Railway rights to operate the service.

ITALY: FS Group-owned Puglia regional railway Ferrovie del Sud-Est has unveiled the first of five three-car Newag Impuls II electric multiple-units ahead of entry into service on the modernised Bari – Casamassima – Putignano line from September. The €20·2m contract for five EMUs was signed in December 2015. It included an

FirstGroup fights for rail businesses todayAN emergency general meeting of FirstGroup plc this afternoon will vote on proposals from an American hedge fund that the company should concentrate on its bus business in the USA, and stop running trains in Britain. The motion, from Coast Capital, also involves the departure

AUSTRALIA: The EDI Rail Bombardier Transportation joint venture has delivered the last of 78 B-Series electric multiple-units ordered by Western Australia’s Public Transport Authority, 15 years after the first was unveiled. The final unit is expected to enter service on the Joondalup and Mandurah lines in early July. An initial 31

UK: The first phase of a restructuring of infrastructure manager Network Rail into 14 routes reporting to five regions was implemented on June 24. This is intended to devolve responsibility and decision-making to smaller organisations which are closer to customers, and to give local managers the ability to tackle performance issues.

URIE Locomotive Society-owned ‘S15’ No. 506 has steamed at the Mid-Hants Railway ahead of an imminent return to service.  The Eastleigh-built 4-6-0 last ran in 2001, and since then has received extensive boiler repairs along with a comprehensive bottom-end overhaul.  This work has included the removal and replacement of the

TYSELEY Locomotive Works, together with Vintage Trains (VT), will use this month’s open weekend as a platform to launch a new project to complete its London & North Western Railway (LNWR) ‘Bloomer’ 2-2-2 No. 670. Work on the James McConnell-designed Single began in 1986 and reached an advanced stage of construction

EUROPE: The Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking’s 2019 call for proposals to receive European Union co-funding for research and innovation received 50 bids covering projects worth a total of €193·9m. This is a 28% increase in the number of proposals from last year, with the €117·9m of co-funding sought being around 50% more

ALSTOM: ‘Sustained growth, green and digital innovation, operational efficiency and an agile, inclusive and responsible corporate culture’ are the aims of the Alstom in Motion strategic plan for 2023 which was unveiled by Chairman & CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge in Paris on June 24. Poupart-Lafarge said the Alstom’s current 2020 strategy had