Austria: ÖBB has unveiled the first of 12 coaches that have been rebuilt as multi-purpose cars with a compartment for disabled passengers; seats in the compartment convert into berths for use on overnight trains.

Canada: CN has agreed to purchase the Athabasca Northern Railway serving the oil sands of northern Alberta. Having paid C$25m, CN will invest C$135m over three years to upgrade the 325 km line in a deal which includes long-term guarantees of sulphur and petroleum coke traffic from Suncor Energy, OPTI Canada, and Nexen.

On January 10 the federal government announced it would meet up to a third of the cost of a study to be funded by the provinces into the feasibility and business case for a Windsor - Québec high speed service.

Europe: Thalys has reported turnover of €364m for 2007, up 6·6% on the year before and the fourth consecutive year of growth in excess of 5%. A total of 6·2 million passengers were carried in 2007.

France: Road haulage and logistics company Norbert Dentressangle has increased its shareholding in Novatrans to 10·91%, having acquired a 10·48% stake in the intermodal operator from Groupe SNCF.

Hungary: Bids are due in this month for the privatisation of the ticket printing activities of state railway MÁV.

India: The government has approved the Rs14bn conversion of the 473 km Ratlam - Khandwa - Akola route from metre to broad gauge over the next five years.

Indonesia: On January 22 President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono inaugurated the 64 km Kutoarjo - Yogyakarta route which has been upgraded to double track using Rp900bn of JBIC funding. He then used teleconferencing to 'sign' a plaque opening an EMU maintenance depot at Depok on the Jakarta - Bogor line in western Java.

Ireland: The Institution of Railway Operators launched an Irish area committee in Dublin on January 17.

New Zealand: Pike River Coal has reached an 18-year agreement to move coal from a new mine near Greymouth to Lyttelton Port by rail rather than sea. Pike River will reserve capacity of up to 1·3 million tonnes/year on Toll Rail trains carrying coal for Solid Energy on the recently-upgraded Midland line.

Portugual: Prime Minister José Socrates announced on January 19 that tendering for the first section of the high speed line between Poceirão outside Lisboa and the Spanish border will begin at the start of June, with the route due to open in 2013. The cross-border section between Evora and Mérida in Spain is expected to receive funding of €312·7m from the EU.

Russia: Last month Transmash Holding company Tver Express launched a thrice-weekly business class service between Moscow and Samara. It is the third of the firm's privately-run trains, following Moscow - St Petersburg in October 2006 and Moscow - Kazan in October 2007.

Spain: Open-access operator Comsa Rail Transport began regular operations on January 15, hauling clinker from El Musel to Valladolid. Logitren Ferroviaria and Ferrocarriles del Suroeste have now applied for freight operating licences.

Following completion of a new connection to the SEAT factory at Martorell at a cost of €3m, FGC hauled its first train of new cars to the Port of Barcelona on January 18. To move 80 000 cars a year, FGC has acquired 38 double-deck wagons at a cost of €2·3m, with a further €710 000 spent on gauge enhancement to accommodate the new rail vehicles.

Tanzania: Last month Tanzania Railways Ltd expected to take delivery of the first five of 15 refurbished Indian metre-gauge diesel-electric locos being supplied by 51% shareholder Rites under a five-year lease worth US$30m.

TRL Managing Director Narsimhaswami Jayaram has announced a plan to rehabilitate the line from Tanga to Arusha, which forms part of a multi-modal corridor linking the coast to Lake Victoria.

UK: Following a public inquiry the government has granted ProLogis planning approval for a rail-served warehousing and distribution facility at Howbury Park in southeast London.

USA: On January 1 Genesee & Wyoming completed its purchase of an 87·4% stake in Maryland Midland Railway for $29·1m.

Myles Group purchased 56 km freight shortline the Wellsboro & Corning Railroad on January 1. The Tioga Central Railroad tourist operation has also been acquired.

The city and county of Honolulu has appointed Parsons Brinckerhoff to provide planning and engineering services for the study of a high-capacity rail transit corridor linking East Kapolei and the Ala Moana Center. Work could start in late 2009.

• CAPTION: After a protracted start-up, Grand Central launched an open-access inter-city service between Sunderland and London on December 18. It hoped to be running three trains a day in each direction by the end of January, using three diesel HST sets
• CAPTION: On December 5 wife of the Slovakian president Silvia Gašparovicová inaugurated the first WRRmeer restaurant car to be extensively rebuilt from East German-built BRcm couchette/buffet cars by ZOS Vrútky. The 160km/h air-conditioned vehicle for ZSSK's flagship Bratislava - Kosice route has a new interior similar to refurbished WRReer and ARpeer coaches
• CAPTION: TZV Gredelj is modernising four ex-Croatian Railways diesel-electric locos acquired by NREC which is to supply them to Russian bauxite mining and aluminium firm Rusal for use in Guinea. Designated GT26CUNm, the rebuilt locos are fitted with GE traction equipment and 1 067 mm gauge bogies for use in West Africa
• Currently undergoing acceptance trials are the first of 11 EMD-engined GT46Ce locomotives ordered from Downer EDI Rail by SCT Logistics for Melbourne - Perth freight services. The A$75m contract announced in November 2005 includes maintenance over 10 years