ALGERIA: A consortium of Italian civil engineering companies Condotte d'Acqua and Rizzani de Eccher has awarded Ansaldo STS a €40m contract to supply ETCS equipment for the 130 km line under construction between Oued Tlélat and Tlemcen. Announcing the deal on June 19, Ansaldo STS said the scope of the 2½ year contract includes implementation of ETCS Level 1 and 2 as well as conventional lineside signalling, the provision of a traffic control centre in Oran and installation of equipment on 15 trains. The mixed-traffic line is being designed for operation at speeds up to 220 km/h.

EUROPE: Freightliner Group announced that it is to acquire ERS Railways from Maersk Line on June 19. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the transaction is subject to regulatory approval. A long-term contract has been agreed for ERS to continue to provide services for the shipping line. Rotterdam-headquartered ERS was founded in 1994 and became licensed as a railway undertaking in 2002. It provides intermodal services to the hinterlands of major ports including Rotterdam, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Lübeck and Rostock, as well as services to destinations in Italy, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic. ERS holds a 47% stake in German port hinterland operator boxXpress.de. 'The acquisition of ERS is a very good fit with our growth strategy and further extends our profitable footprint, following our successful entry into the Polish and German bulk haul markets over the last seven years and our entry into Australia in 2009', said Peter Maybury, Chief Executive of Freightliner Group. 'The business has a strong management team who share our service-led approach, and we look forward to supporting them as ERS continues to grow its continental European intermodal services.'

JAPAN: A memorandum of understanding to jointly assess business opportunities in the Japanese light rail and tram markets was signed on June 19 by Alstom and Japan Transport Engineering Co, the former Tokyu Car rolling stock business which is owned by East Japan Railway. The companies are to undertake a one-year study of the opportunities to participate in the modernisation of existing networks, which Alstom said are mostly over 30 years old, as well as the development of new lines. They also aim to identify opportunities for Alstom's Citadis tram family and catenary-free electrification technology to be used in Japan, and the development work which would be needed to meet Japanese standards.

FRANCE: Ansaldo STS has been awarded a €13m contract to supply an ETCS Level 2 overlay for the signalling on the LGV Sud-Europe Atlantique high speed line. In 2011 Ansaldo STS was awarded a €47m contract to provide TVM430 cab signalling for the line. The latest ETCS contract awarded by Cofely Ineo and Systra and announced on June 19 is worth €13m, and has an option worth a further €4·9m. LGV SEA will link Tours and Bordeaux, and will have a total length of 343 route-km including connections to the existing network. The route is being built for 320 km/h operation.

FRANCE: SNCF and RATP announced on June 17 that they were putting in place a unified management team to run Paris RER Line B, which is run by the national operator north of Paris Nord and by the city transport agency to the south. Train crews have been operating through between the two halves of Line B for some time, instead of changing at Paris Nord, and control of the signalling on RFF's northern section was migrated to RATP's control room at Denfert-Rochereau last year. The two operators said that putting in place a direction de ligne unifiée would improve the quality of service offered to passengers. The announcement follows extensive consultation with the unions, and saw the appointment of Jerome Lefebvre to head up the new organisation, reporting to both RATP President Pierre Mongin and his SNCF counterpart Guillaume Pepy. Creation of the DLU is expected to address three main objectives: improve the punctuality of Line B services; provide better information for passengers; facilitate the management of disruption. Putting the responsibility for all Line B operations under a single line manager is expected to simplify operational processes and accelerate implementation of measures to improve the quality of service. Similarly, a pilot project is already underway to ensure that the same information is provided to passengers across the whole line, avoiding situations where SNCF is telling people one thing and RATP something different. Between now and the end of this year, staff working for SNCF, RATP and RFF will be relocated to a single management office adjacent to Denfert Rochereau station. This is expected to facilitate dialogue and co-operation, particularly in response to any incidents that may arise. The new structure is to be 'accompanied by a major investment plan' to renovate the line, funded by Ile-de-France transport authority STIF, the region, the national government, and the two operators. The 'B Nord+' project will see the modernisation of stations and the creation of dedicated tracks for Line B between Paris Nord, Roissy airport and Mitry-Claye, along with a redesign of the timetable and renovation of the rolling stock. This will be followed by a similar master plan for B Sud.

SPAIN: The 165 km of high speed infrastructure between Albacete and Alacant entered service on June 18, having been officially opened the day before by the Prince of Asturias, heir to the Spanish throne. Prince Felipe was accompanied by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, as well as Development Minister Ana Pastor, Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo and the presidents of the Castilla-La Mancha and Valencia regional governments. Built at a cost of €1·92bn, the new line has cut the fastest Madrid - Alacant journey time by 50 min to 2 h 20 min. This is expected to be reduced to 2 h 05 min once work to commission ETCS Level 2 signalling is completed and the maximum speed can be raised to 300 km/h. RENFE is operating 18 services a day between Madrid and Alacant, calling at stations on the high speed line at Cuenca, Albacete and Villena. There are also daily Alvia services from Alacant to Santander and Gijón, operated with gauge-changing Class 130 trainsets, as well as a service to Vigo operated at weekends and other peak periods using electro-diesel Class 730 trainsets. With the opening of the route to Alacant taking its total length to 3 100 km, the Ministry of Development says that Spain now has the world's second-largest high speed network and the largest in Europe.

FRANCE: Avignon council has selected Alstom to supply 24 Citadis Compact trams for the city’s future two-line network. Alstom announced the order on June 18, saying that the trams are to be delivered in early 2016, for opening later that year. The order is worth €43·7m. Avignon is the second city to order the Citadis Compact, after Aubagne placed an order in October 2011. The air-conditioned trams will be 24m long and will be made up of three sections, with the possibility adding two extra sections. The trams will be produced at various Alstom plants in France. Alstom says that the ‘customised styling with interior and exterior features that reflect the City of Avignon’s architectural heritage’. The 9·2 km Line A will have 16 stops, and Line B will be 5·2 km long with 10 stops. They will be electrified at 750V DC.

BRAZIL: The VLT RMBS consortium has signed a contract for signalling and communications systems for the future SIM light rail network in Santos. Thales will provide signalling equipment including fixed and mobile communication systems, data transmission and the electronic traffic monitoring system. VLT RMBS comprises Construtora Ferreira Guedes, Trans Sistemas de Transportes, Adtranz Engenharia e Sistemas and Brascontrol Indústria e Comércio. It is building the network in two phases. The initial 11 km section will link Porto to Barreiros in São Vicente, and a second 4 km section will run from Conselheiro Nébias to Valongo. Once both sections are open by the end of 2014, SIM is expected to carry 70 000 passengers/day. In November public transport operator EMTU selected the Tremvia Santos consortium of Trans Sistemas de Transportes and Vossloh España to supply 22 light rail vehicles under a contract expected to be worth up to R$284·3m. Deliveries are due to take place between May 2014 and April 2015.

GERMANY: Incumbent operator DB Regio has been selected by the Land of Bayern to run regional services between München, Ingolstadt, Augsburg, Treuchtlingen and Nürnberg for 12 years from December 2016. Included in the operating contract are 200 km/h fast regional services which use the Neubaustrecke between Nürnburg and Ingolstadt. The tender documents from the Land required that the operator invest in TSI-compliant accessible trainsets capable of at least 190 km/h for these trains. DB Regio has in turn placed an order for six double–deck trainsets with Škoda Transportation worth more than €100m. The six-car push-pull trainsets will comprise five pressure-sealed intermediate cars plus a driving trailer, with a level floor height of 760 mm and 679 second class and 26 first class seats. A multi-function area capable of holding up to 37 bicycles is also to be provided. The cars will be built at Škoda’s Ostrava plant with electrical equipment coming from Plzen. The trains will be powered by six Škoda Type 109E multi-system locomotives, based on the design already in traffic in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. ‘We consider it a key reference today that we will deliver railway vehicles for the extremely demanding German market’, said Zdeněk Majer, Sales Vice-President at Škoda Transportation. ‘This contract gives us a major opportunity to also introduce other Czech vehicles onto the tracks in Germany and other western European states in the near future.’

EGYPT: A group of Spanish public bodies has been selected to provide technical and legal support to the Cairo metro on the reform of safety regulations, procedures and practice. The project is one of a series of twinning initiatives promoted by the EU to promote co-operation between EU member states, candidates and Mediterranean countries. The €1·3m EU-funded project will commence in September and last 27 months. It will help the Cairo metro operator to build an internationally compliant safety management system. Staff training will also be provided under the project. The Catalan Ministry of Territory & Sustainability is leading the project, and Barcelona public transport operator Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona will provide technical management. The other participants are Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Ineco and Fundació Internacional i per a Iberoamèrica d’Administració i Polítiques Públiques.