SWITZERLAND: The Federal Council announced it had granted a concession for the construction of a tram line between Lausanne-Flon and Renens-Gare on September 16.

Planned as part of the Projet d'Agglomération Lausanne Morges scheme to improve transport in the city, line T1 will replace buses which local transport authority TL believes will not be able to handle the predicted growth in traffic along the corridor to the west of the city by 2020.

The concession will run for 50 years from January 1 2012, subject to TL submitting plans by the end of 2013 and construction beginning by the end of 2016 for completion by December 31 2018. The federal government will meet 40% of the project costs, subject to a maximum of SFr74m.