UK: The deadline to submit bids for the estimated £2·75bn contract to design, manufacture and maintain the High Speed 2 train fleet passed at midday on June 5. Project promoter HS2 Ltd will now evaluate the five bids received and expects to announce the winner in early 2020, with entry

Massive cost increases and lengthy delays to the Crossrail project were caused by the chosen contractual model, a compressed schedule and the absence of a realistic plan for completion, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). The NAO’s Completing Crossrail report, published on May 3, found that Crossrail Ltd

SWEDEN: Competition authority Konkurrensverket has called on the government to review the regulations governing the online sale of rail tickets, in order to address the dominant position of the sj.se website run by state-owned incumbent operator SJ AB. Two new entrants – MTR Express and Saga Rail – filed complaints last

SWITZERLAND: SBB Cargo plans to trial automated brake tests for freight trains by the end of the year as it makes headway in its efforts to digitalise its wagonload business. The operator has been trialling autocouplers on 130 wagons used on dedicated intermodal shuttles for more than a year, Project Manager

Britain’s best-selling rail title is back for another month of award-winning photos, news, features and exclusives from the rail industry, past and present. This month’s The Railway Magazine features the LNER ‘Azuma’ entering traffic,  the ‘Big Boy’ steaming after 60 years plus take a look at why there’s CCTV for the ‘Scotsman’

THE internal battle in FirstGroup, which operates Great Western Railway, South Western Railway and TransPennine Express, is becoming a war of words between the board and what it sees as a rogue investor.Ahead of an Extraordinary General Meeting later this month, First has launched a determined counter attack on US-based

FRANCE: Trenitalia subsidiary Thello has notified rail regulator ARAFER of its intention to launch the first open access passenger services on the French high speed network. The regulator announced on June 4 that Thello had requested paths from SNCF Réseau for a twice-daily service between Milano and Paris to start

POLAND: Infrastructure manager PKP PLK has signed two loan agreements with the European Investment Bank providing a total of €400m to finance modernisation of 195 km of the Poznań – Szczecin route, which is part of the TEN-T Baltic-Adriatic corridor. ‘EIB and PLK have been co-operating on dozens of projects over

ITALY: Trenitalia has confirmed an order for a partnership of Hitachi Rail (60%) and Bombardier Transportation (40%) to supply 14 more Frecciarossa 1000 high speed trainsets and maintain them for 10 years. The €575m deal announced on June 4 follows the publication in May of FS Group’s business plan for 2019-23. The

USA: Freight railway group RailUSA has announced its second acquisition, forming the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad with the purchase of a 690 km line from CSX Corp. Terms were not disclosed. The FGA runs east–west across northern Florida from Baldwin near Jacksonville to Tallahassee and Pensacola, with a connection to