Australia: National Rail and TNT Automotive Logistics have begun moving cars between Melbourne and Brisbane in 3·2m high containers on two TRAY wagons with a deck height of 830mm and a wheel diameter of 725mm.

NRC’s Trailerail has ordered 10 refrigerated road/rail trailers from Maxi-Cube and 15 curtain-sided vehicles from Air-Ride for use on the Sydney - Perth route.

Rail Access Corp of New South Wales is managing a programme of feasibility studies into reactivating disused lines and restoring passenger services in rural areas.

Passenger service was reintroduced to the 423 km Cairns - Forsayth route in Queensland on September 4, through an extension of the Forsayth - Mount Surprise Savannahlander tourist train.

Bangladesh: Agngur Enterprise is to operate passenger and parcels services on Bangladesh Railway’s 167 km Santahar - Lamonirhat route, paying an annual fee of 12·4m taka. Bids have been invited for the Dhaka - Chittagong and Dhaka - Mymenshing routes.

Canada: Canadian National is to transfer 434route-km in Alberta connecting St Paul Junction with Boyle, Grande Centre and Elk Point to RaiLink Ltd (RG 9.97 p566). CN has agreed in principle to sell the 164 km Silver - London route in Ontario to RailTex Inc, which operates the nearby Goderich - Exeter Railway.

China: Chinese Railways completed electrification of the 694 km Beijing - Zhengzhou route in early August. Work began in 1992 at a total cost of 3·5bn yuan.

Czech Republic: The EU is providing KC193m under the Phare programme towards 25 kV 50Hz electrification of the 11 km between Cheb and the German border at a cost of KC260m.

Europe: Intercontainer-Interfrigo and CSKD-Intrans (RG 8.98 p506) are to co-operate on developing intermodal services to the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Three Netherlands Railways Class DM90 DMUs entered service on the cross-border Heerlen - Aachen route on August 14, following approval from Germany’s Federal Railway Authority.

Germany: Ostholstein district has backed proposals to reopen the Eutin - Neustadt line, restart passenger services on the Malente - Lütjenburg branch, and enhance services between Eutin and Kiel.

Moselbahn GmbH, operator of the Trier - Bullay local railway closed in 1968, plans to take over the DB branch from Bullay to Traben Trarbach in 2001.

September 1 saw services on the Heidekrautbahn from Berlin-Karow to Liebenwalde and Groß Sch

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