NORWAY: State-owned train operator NSB Group relaunched as Vy on April 24, bringing its rail, bus and electric car-sharing activities together under a single brand. ‘The name Norwegian State Railways no longer adequately expresses what we do’, explained Chairman Dag Mejdell. ‘The NSB Group operates rail and bus services in

RUSSIA: Eurosib SPb - Transport Systems has awarded United Wagon Co’s Tikhvin plant a contract to supply 400 Type 13-6903 container wagons by February 2020. They will have 25 tonne axleload bogies, capacity of 74·5 tonnes and a loading length of 80 ft, enabling them to carry high-capacity containers including refrigerated

GERMANY: Netinera subsidiary Länderbahn announced on April 1 that it will continue to run Ostsachsennetz II services under its Trilex brand for a further 12 years from December 14 2019. In April 2018 DB Regio subsidiary Start Ostsachsen was selected for the concession by a group of four transport and

Greater Anglia will operate another railtour to support a local children’s hospice on May 18 as the company bids farewell to its locomotive-hauled ‘short set’ in May Two Direct Rail Services (DRS) Class 37s and a set of five Mk2 coaches will work a Norwich-Kings Lynn-Liverpool Street-Norwich tour on May

FRANCE: Proposals to tender the operation of regional passenger services in Hauts-de-France from the end of 2022 were unveiled by the regional council on April 23. Following the lead set by Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur last month, the region is planning to open up local rail services to competition in line with domestic

UK: A complete rethink of the way long-distance rail services in Great Britain are operated forms a key part of Virgin Trains’ submission to the government’s Williams Rail Review of the rail industry. Despite the possibility that Virgin Trains will cease operating rail services in the UK within the next year,

USA: The Georgia Ports Authority has selected RailComm to provide a yard management system to support the expansion of rail facilities at the Port of Savannah. This forms part of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project to equip the port to handle the larger container ships which have been able to transit

VIRGIN has unveiled proposals for making intercity trains all-reserved, as Eurostar is now.The plan, which has been submitted to the railway review being led by Keith Williams for the Department for Transport, would end the concept of a ‘walk on’ railway as far as longer distance travel was concerned. Passengers would

UK: Ambitious plans to launch a network of open access regional passenger services in western England are being developed by independent not-for-profit co-operative society GO-OP Co-operative Ltd, which hopes to start operations in summer 2020. GO-OP is proposing to offer at least three direct trains each way per day between Swindon