Australia: The Commonwealth government was due to receive bids last month from consultants for two more scoping studies into the potential for high speed railways in the Melbourne - Canberra - Sydney and Sydney - Brisbane corridors.

Denmark: Angel Trains International has ordered 12 more Class MQ two-car Siemens Desiro VT642 DMUs for €31m. Leased to DSB, they will operate Ødense - Svendborg services on Funen.

France: SNCF has exercised a €350m option with Alstom for a further 18 double-deck TGV Duplex sets for Paris - Lyon services. Bogies, one second class and two first class vehicles for each set will be built by Bombardier, for delivery between March 2004 and March 2005.

Italy: Trenitalia has ordered a further 100 Class E464 electric locos from Bombardier at a cost of €200m. To be built at Vado Ligure, with electrical equipment from Mannheim and Zürich, they will be delivered between May 2003 and October 2005. Bombardier has currently supplied 80 of an initial order for 140 single-ended 160 km/h locos to operate regional passenger services.

South Korea: Mer Mec SpA of Italy is to supply a Roger 1000 infrastructure inspection vehicle for use on the high speed line under construction between Seoul and Taejon.

Senegal: Pakistan Railway Carriage Factory has completed the renovation of 20 metre-gauge passenger coaches for CFS, under a contract signed at Dakar in August 2001. PR is preparing a feasibility report into rail extensions in Senegal, and links to neighbouring countries.

Spain: The Ministry of Development has awarded a €750000 contract to Equipo de Técnicos en Transporte and Typsa to draw up proposals for remodelling the rail network in Alicante.

GIF has placed more contracts for work on the Córdoba - M

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