A TWO-YEAR pay deal has been agreed by Network Rail and the RMT, which the union has described as ‘inflation busting’.It has voted to accept the offer, which involves an increase of 3.2 per cent (with a minimum of £555 for full-time staff) and a further increase in January 2020

CHINA: CRRC Zhuzhou has begun production at what it describes as ‘the world's first intelligent bogie manufacturing workshop’. The manufacturer said this provides ‘30·1% more production efficiency’ with 50% fewer staff and a 35% shorter R&D time compared to traditional manual operation. Automated guided vehicles retrieve and transport materials to the workstations which

TALGO: Spanish rolling stock manufacturer Talgo announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2019 on May 14. Net revenues grew by 2·2% year-on-year, to €87·1m. Adjusted EBITDA was €15·9m and net profit €7·1m, a 70% increase compared with the first quarter of 2018. Lower depreciation and amortisation costs

NEW ZEALAND: Turner & Townsend has been appointed to provide cost management advisory services for the NZ$4·4bn City Rail Link project in Auckland. Last month project promoter CRL Ltd named the Link Alliance of Vinci Construction Grands Projets, Downer, Soletanche Bachy International, WSP Opus, AECOM New Zealand and Tonkin + Taylor

USA: Virgin Trains USA announced the award of contracts for construction of the 270 km West Palm Beach – Orlando International Airport Phase 2 of its inter-city corridor on May 21, saying they represented a total private investment of $4bn. Passenger services on Virgin Trains USA’s existing Miami – West Palm Beach

THE Norwich & District Society of Model Engineers’ (The Railway Magazine, March) ‘club’ loco – 7¼in-gauge LNER ‘A3’ 4-6-2 No. 4480 Enterprise – made its first appearance for at least a decade at the Eaton Park Miniature Railway Norwich on April 7.  The builder is unknown, but it is possibly

EUROPE: Private sector funding accounted for 42% of all rolling stock orders placed in 2015-17, but only 23% by volume, according to a market study published on May 20. Undertaken for the Rail Working Group by Roland Berger, the study is the third to look at the evolution of the market.

GERMANY: Following a European tender, the Fahma rolling stock subsidiary of Rhein-Main transport authority RMV has awarded Alstom a contract to supply and support a fleet of 27 fuel cell multiple-units. ‘RMV will have the world's largest fleet of fuel cell trains in passenger service’, said RMV Managing Director Prof Knut

A LONDON teenager who was seriously injured because he trespassed on the railway has been commended by Network Rail for being brave enough to lend his support to a railway safety drive.Inigo Sweeney-Lynch, 17, is backing Network Rail’s You vs. Train campaign to raise awareness of the risks which trespassers

SWITZERLAND: Montreux-Oberland Bahn is on course to launch its long-planned through-service between Montreux and Interlaken on December 13 2020, following the completion of tests with specially-developed dual-gauge bogies and a gauge-changing facility at the break of gauge in Zweisimmen.Announcing the success of the trials during a demonstration of the equipment