Trams are to be procured to replace the 16 Ansaldo cars which have been used on the 20 km Birmingham - Wolverhampton light rail route since it opened in 1999. A new maintenance depot is to be built at Wednesbury, and the existing stops lengthened to handle longer and higher capacity trams.

Local transport authority Centro already has planning permission for the extension. It submitted its business case last October, and the announcement means the government now expects to provide £81m towards the £127m project, subject to the availability of funds and costs remaining the same.

'The extension will deliver 3·5 million passengers a year right into the heart of the city's shopping district', said Alan Chatham, Chairman of Retail Birmingham.

The strategy has been developed following the second major lorry shuttle fire in September 2008, which disrupted operations in the Tunnel for six months and had a serious impact on Eurotunnel's revenues in both 2008 and 2009. By agreeing to install the fire-suppression stations, Eurotunnel has been able to negotiate substantially lower insurance premiums, which contributed to an 11% cost reduction in 2009; the premiums for 2010 are expected to be 32% than they were for 2008.

In its 2009 results announced on March 9, Eurotunnel reported a net profit of €1·4m, against €34m the previous year. This followed a 25% drop in total shuttle revenue to €311m, mainly because road hauliers switched to the ferries after the shuttle fire. Total revenue in 2009 was €571m, down 16% on 2008. Thanks to a 1% increase in Eurostar passengers total railway revenue was unchanged at €250m.

The 13·8 km East-West line will run from Salt Lake Sector V to Howrah Maidan, with an 8 km six-station underground stretch including the crossing beneath the Hooghly River.

KMRC has already awarded contracts to construct the 5·8 km elevated section to Gammon India and the six elevated stations to Simplex. Five bidders have been shortlisted to build the remaining underground section from Central to Howrah Maidan.

KMRC is a joint venture between the West Bengal government and the national Ministry for Urban Development. The Rs48·7bn project will be financed partly by central government (Rs11·7bn) and West Bengal (Rs14·5bn), with the remainder lent by JICA.

The Salt Lake Sector V - Sealdah section is expected to open by October 2013, with the whole line operational by December 2014.

The original timescale would have seen the Bombela consortium complete Phase 1 by June 27. However, after the project began South Africa was selected to host the FIFA World Cup, and the provincial government was keen to see the opening brought forward so that the line could handle some of the football traffic. The cost of accelerating the work was initially too high for the government, but agreement has been reached to launch a reduced-scope service at no extra cost.

Phase 2 is scheduled for completion in 2011. Extending the line north from Sandton to Pretoria and Hatfield and south to Park station in Johannesburg, this will take Gautrain to 80 route-km.

Formed in 2005, the joint venture has been involved in heavy haul infrastructure projects in Western Australia. 'The Calibre Engenium JV has been a growth powerhouse in the Calibre stable and this acquisition is a key step in creating a fully integrated mine-to-port services capability for the resources sector', said Calibre Global Managing Director, Rod Baxter.

Calibre Global's rail engineering business recorded revenue of A$100m in 2008-09.

Illinois Department of Transportation has appointed PB as programme manager for the project to introduce 176 km/h passenger services on a 450 km route from Chicago to St Louis, which was allocated $1·1bn of federal funding in January.

Ohio Department of Transport has selected a team led by PB to develop plans for 126 km/h inter-city passenger services on freight lines in the 400 km Cleveland - Columbus - Dayton - Cincinnati '3C' corridor. This project was awarded $400m of federal money.

In Florida, PB will lead a consulting team appointed by the Department of Transportation to undertake planning of the 370 km Orlando - Miami 300 km/h line, including recommending the final alignment.

PB is already leading programme management for the 1 280 km California High-Speed Rail project, and is one of several consultants for the Southern High-Speed Rail Commission, a three-state authority planning high-speed rail in Atlanta, New Orleans and Houston.

With 11 domestic airlines moving to T2, about 90% of flights will now depart from the new terminal, which is designed to handle around 1·1 million passengers. One local airline and flights to South Korea and Japan will continue to use Terminal 1. The airport expansion is part of an ambitious plan to develop the greater Hongqiao area, which will include a 26·5 km² business park.

Another intermediate station has been built on Line 2 between the airport and East Xujing, but not yet opened. This will provide interchange to the high speed railway station at Hongqiao, which is expected to open in July. The main line station will eventually have 30 tracks and is designed to handle 80 million high speed rail passengers per year by 2030.

Shanghai metro Line 10 will serve both airport terminals when it enters service in October, interchanging with Line 2 at Terminal 2. Until then passengers arriving by metro will have to take a shuttle bus from T2 to reach T1. The 36·2 km Line 10 will run from Hongqiao through the city centre to New Jiangwan Town in northeast Shanghai and will have 31 stations.

A 26·8 km eight-station eastern extension of Line 2 from Guanglan Road to Pudong International Airport is expected to open before the World Expo begins on May 1.

RZD is building the line parallel to the Mediterranean coast under a €2·2bn contract signed in April 2008, and President Vladimir Yakunin visited the construction sites on March 14 to meet Chairman of Libyan Railways Said Mohammed Rashid. At present 438 people are engaged on construction, which is expected to take four years and will employ a total of 3 500 local and Russian workers.

'This is the first transport sector project on such a scale in the history of the two countries', said Yakunin. 'Russian Railways, having a wealth of experience in carrying out such projects, is confident that it will meet the timeframe, while achieving a high level of quality. The use of Russian-produced maintenance vehicles will help achieve this goal. This project therefore provides Russian companies with the opportunity to enter new markets.'

Trains will initially run at 160 km/h, but the double track alignment makes provision for electrification to allow running at 250 km/h. According to RZD the project includes 1 000 'artificial structures', including 30 rail and 23 road bridges, and six major and 24 minor stations.

Separately, China Railway Construction Corp has contracts covering the 625 km west from Surt to Al Khums, Tripoli and Ras Ejder on the Tunisian border, and an 800 km link inland from Misratah to iron ore deposits near Sabha.

Australia: QR has placed A$126m of orders to support Hunter Valley coal contracts. UGL Ltd will supply 15 Class 5020 C44ACHi diesel locomotives by May 2011 at a cost of A$93m, and 160 stainless steel 120 tonne coal wagons for A$34m. QR’s Rollingstock & Component Services business will build 80 wagons worth A$18m.

Bosnia: The first of nine Talgo tilting trainsets for ZFBH was delivered to Sarajevo on February 8.

Brazil: The MTrens consortium has selected EKE Electronics to supply ethernet-based communications, passenger information and video surveillance for installation in 25 refurbished trainsets on São Paulo metro Line 3.

Canada: Montréal’s AMT has awarded Bombardier a C$34m three-year contract to maintain commuter locomotives and coaches from July 1.

China: Mitsubishi and Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric have won a ¥3·6bn order to supply traction equipment for 27 six-car metro trains to be used on Beijing’s Changping Line which will open later this year.

Europe: Faiveley has been awarded a five-year contract to overhaul brake systems on 4400 wagons owned by leasing firm AAE.

Germany: On January 21 Leipzig operator LVB placed a €29m order for a further nine Bombardier Flexity Classic low-floor trams, with delivery scheduled for late 2011.

DB has called tenders for up to 200 diesel locomotives to haul freight and passenger traffic at up to 140 km/h. The operator is looking to agree a framework contract for the fleet, which will need to be able to run in Austria, France, Switzerland, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Poland.

Stuttgarter Strassenbahnen has signed a €77m order for 20 Stadler Tango LRVs to be delivered from 2012.

Bombardier is to supply DB with a further 26 three-car and 22 five-car Class 442 Talent 2 EMUs worth €200m for use in Brandenburg from December 2011. Under a 2003 framework agreement DB has ordered 18 more double-deck coaches for Nordrhein-Westfalen and Baden-Württemberg for €24m.

Under a €45m contract Bombardier and Vossloh Kiepe are to supply Kassel’s KVG with a further 18 Flexity Classic 70% low-floor 30 m trams in 2011-13 to allow the withdrawal of high-floor Duewag cars. They will be suitable for use in tunnels and under EBO basic railway rules on the Lossetal route.

India: Siemens has signed a memorandum to supply Bharat Earth Movers Ltd with bogies and electrical equipment for stainless steel EMUs to be built in Bangalore for Mumbai and elsewhere.

Italy: The Sardinia regional authority has awarded CAF a contract to supply up to five DMUs with the SIBI tilt system at cost of €58m including maintenance for five years. There is an option for a further three.

Netherlands: Alstom has announced a €200m contract to supply Amsterdam with 23 Metropolis six-car metro trainsets. There are options for further trainsets for the future North–South Line. Interior lighting will be entirely by LED, and the trains will be ready for future driverless operation.

Pakistan: China Northern has signed a 760m yuan contract to supply passenger coaches to PR.

Poland: Pomorskie voivodship has selected Newag as preferred bidder to supply six DMUs by January 2011 at a cost of 50m zoty.

Pesa has signed a 91m zoty contract to supply Maopolskie voivodship with five 32WE Acatus 2 four-car electric multiple-units in 2011. Sachodniopomorskie has ordered 10 219M Atribo DMUs for 149 m zoty to be delivered by May 2012.

Romania: The running speed of 140 Görlitz-built double-deck coaches is being increased by 20 km/h to 140 km/h under a modernisation by Faiveley Transport which includes new braking systems and the installation of CCTV and air-conditioning.

Russia: Transgarant has ordered 650 coal wagons from Baltic Leasing. They will be built by Altaivagon, and follow a 2009 order for 500.

Freight One has taken delivery of 700 four-axle general merchandise open wagons from Promtraktor-Wagon. Fitted with Type 18-9771 bogies also supplied by Promtraktor, the fleet is intended to be able to run for 500000 km without a major overhaul. Agreements have been signed for Promtraktor-Wagon to supply the RZD subsidiary with 15000 open wagons in 2010-12.

Altaivagon subsidiary Kuzbass Car Building Co has launched the production of Series 12-296-01 open wagons at its Kemerovo plant, and expects to deliver 40 vehicles a month. The new production line required investment of 20m roubles, creating 60 jobs.

Switzerland: Crossrail has awarded SBB a five-year contract to maintain its five Re436 locomotives; SBB has many similar locomotives, giving economy of scale.

Founded in 1990 as Southwest Signal Engineering Company, Xorail now has annual sales of $40m. It is based in Jacksonville, Florida, and has 275 employees at 10 satellite offices throughout North America.

'Xorail's engineering and wayside capabilities are a good fit with our existing railway electronics business', said Wabtec President & CEO Albert J Neupaver. 'In addition, these capabilities position Wabtec for a larger role as the rail industry implements positive train control technology over the next several years.'