Construction was launched in September 2005 under the medium and long-term railway development plan which the government had approved the previous year (RG 9.09 p31). Ansaldo STS and Beijing HollySys supplied signalling equipment for the route, around 77% of which is on viaduct or in tunnel. The total cost was 35·3bn yuan.

The alignment has been designed for 350 km/h running, and a pre-opening test train reached 352 km/h when covering the route in 1 h 48 min. The regular service comprises 14 trains a day.

'By 2012 it will take less than 8 h to travel by train from Beijing to most provincial capitals', predicted Long Jing, head of Chinese Railways' Xi'an bureau.

Through services between the two west coast cities were withdrawn more than 30 years ago, although a local service was subsequently reinstated on the Limerick – Ennis section. The government has now invested €106·5m on reconstruction of the Ennis – Athenry section, as part of its National Spatial Strategy objectives to promote balanced regional development.

Major infrastructure works were completed towards the end of last year, and driver training is underway, despite recent problems with flooding between Limerick and Ennis. IE has replaced 58 km of track, including pointwork, repaired bridges, and renewed fences and drainage along the whole route. Some level crossings have been modernized, and others eliminated.

Four new intermediate stations have been built at Sixmilebridge, Gort, Ardrahan and Craughwell, each having fully-accessible 90 m long platforms with ticket vending machines, passenger information and help points plus CCT surveillance. Facilities at Ennis and Athenry have also been enhanced.

From March 30 the line will be served by five trains in each direction on Monday to Saturday, timed to suit commuter traffic into both Limerick and Galway. There will be four trains each way on Sundays.

The 30 km east-west Line 2 will run mainly underground from Oryu-dong in Seo-gu to Incheon Grand Park in Namdong-gu, with 27 stations. Interchanges will be provided with the AREX airport express at Geomam, Seoul metro Line 1 at Juan and Incheon’s north-south Line 1 at Incheon City Hall.

In February 2009 Hyundai Rotem, POSCO E&C, LS Industrial System and SK C&C received a 600bn won turnkey contract from the Incheon Metropolitan City administration to supply signalling, telecoms, power supplies, maintenance facilities, track, platform screen doors and 37 two-car trains for Line 2. The driverless line is due to open in August 2014, in time for the Asian Olympic Games in September.

Seltrac CBTC provides full moving-block train control for unattended train operation, using free-space radio for data communications between the trains and lineside equipment. It will also supervise interfaces with subsystems including passenger information, SCADA and platform screen doors.

Thales has also supplied signalling for other lines in South Korea, including Korail’s Bundang Line and the Sin Bundang Line in the Seoul region, and the Busan – Gimhae automated light metro.

Europe: Eurotunnel has chosen Corys TESS to supply two Channel Tunnel shuttle locomotive driving simulators to replace ones dating from 1993.

France: The Port of Dunkerque has awarded Eurotunnel a €24·8m contract to operate and maintain its 200 km rail network for seven years from 2011. The lines are currently operated by SNCF which did not bid.

Japan: JR East is trialling CCTV cameras on the Saikyo Line, which also has women-only cars. Although CCTV is increasingly common elsewhere in the world, this is reported to be the first use on a Japanese commuter train.

Turkey: TCDD is seeking consultants to analyse options for freight traffic between Europe and Asia through the Marmaray tunnel under the Bosporus.

San Francisco MTA intends to bore the tunnels well beyond the final station in preparation for a future extension to Fisherman's Wharf. Utility relocation is already underway, and contracts are being awarded for the design of the tunnel, stations and systems. Revenue service is now tentatively scheduled for December 2018.

AnsaldoBreda has been awarded a $54m contract to upgrade 143 Muni tram cars at its plant in Pittsburg.

The 19·5 km route between Jacob Circle and Chembur with 18 stations is expected to open in 2011. According to Scomi, each train can accommodate 600 passengers, providing a total daily capacity of 300 000 passengers.

No trains have run on the 42 km section between Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu since then, but on February 3 tourist train operator Orient Express said the 13 km beyond Machu Picchu to Hydroelectrica would be re-opened within 10 days, subject to favourable weather. Repairing the track between Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu is expected to take around eight weeks.

Other than the railway there is no vehicular access to Machu Pichu, which was left cut off by the flooding. The Inca citadel is a major tourist destination, and PeruRail said it is 'evaluating different alternatives' to re-establish links in an effort to minimise the impact on the local economy.

After the floods the army took control of Machu Picchu station, where around 300 tourists slept on the train and in the building. PeruRail and Orient Express covered the cost of two additional helicopters to increase capacity during the government's airlift of 1 900 stranded Peruvians and tourists to Ollantaytambo, from where PeruRail provided free buses to Cusco.

Nanjing Kangni Mechanical & Electrical Co Ltd was recently awarded a 24m yuan order from CSR to supply sliding plug doors for Suzhou's rolling stock. The 26 km east-west line from Zhongnanjie to Lingtianche is due to enter service in mid-2012.

Work has also started on the 26 km Line 2, running south from the future Suzhou station on the Beijing - Shanghai high speed line to Yingchunnanlu in Wuzhong Economic Development Zone. With 22 stations, Line 2 is expected to open in 2014.

The track has been lowered 8 m and a road bridge built to replace the crossing which was used by 50000 road vehicles, 218 trains and 5000 pedestrians a day. The project was undertaken by the Springvale Road Rail Alliance of VicRoads, the Department of Transport, John Holland, Arup, KBR and the train operator.

The order for the C25 EMPD locomotives to haul both freight and passenger trains was placed under an agreement signed by the Nigerian Ministry of Transport in May 2009. They are being built in Brazil by GE Transportation South America, with 7FDL engines of 2 500 hp supplied from the Grove City plant in the USA. GE said similar locomotives are in service in South Africa, but the Nigerian locomotives are designed to suit the axleloads and clearances on NRC's 3 505 km single track 1 067 mm gauge network .

'This represents an important step in GE Transportation's entry into the Nigerian marketplace', said GE Transportation President & CEO Lorenzo Simonelli. 'GE experts performed an extensive analysis on Nigeria's narrow gauge railway network, haulage requirements and traffic patterns to determine the best-fit locomotive.'