Australia: Adtranz Australia and Walkers Ltd have won a joint contract to build five two-car EMUs for Westrail; they will be similar to the existing fleet, and first delivery is due in November 1998.
Queensland’s Department of Transport has called tenders for a consultancy study to improve efficiency and best practice for Brisbane’s Citytrain.
Brazil: CVRD has ordered 7000 tonnes of rail from Sydney Steel of Nova Scotia, Canada.
Canada: CN and GE have signed a loco maintenance agreement covering servicing of Dash 8 and Dash 9 locos at Symington depot in Winnipeg.
Sasib Railway GRS has been appointed by CN to upgrade 3000route-km of CTC over the next five years, replacing relay interlockings with VIP vital processors and improving data transfer to the dispatching centre.
Germany: Rheinbraun AG has ordered 10 four-axle EL2000 electric locos from Adtranz; they will be based on technology developed for DB’s Class 101 and 145 locos, with a rating of 2·8MW, Flexifloat bogies and 70 km/h top speed.
Erfurter Industriebahn has ordered five Regio-Shuttle railcars from Adtranz for use between Erfurt and Leinefelde.
Great Britain: Transport Consultants International (formerly BR Projects Ltd) has been awarded a contract to manage procurement of new trains and refurbishment of 150 existing vehicles for North Western Trains.
Hong Kong: KCRC’s two Adtranz/SLM Lok 2000 KTT electrics arrived in the colony on May 10; the Kinki Sharyo double-deck coaches arrived in April.
KCRC awarded three consultancy contracts for Phase 2 technical studies for the West Rail project, covering West Kowloon terminus (Ove Arup), traction power supplies (CITIC Guo Hua), and drawing standards (Binnie).
India: Ircon is negotiating with General Electric for technical collaboration to remanufacture 175 WDM-2 diesel locos supplied to IR by Alco in the early 1960s.
Nigeria: China is to supply 400 wagons and 20 passenger coaches to NRC, as well 50 locos (RG 4.97 p210).
Russia: MTH of Praha has won a US$59m contract from RZD to build track machinery in conjunction with PRMZ Kaluga.
Sri Lanka: Rites has won a contract to supply four diesel-electric locos to Sri Lanka Railway; SLR has also called tenders for 15 DMUs.
USA: Amtrak has ordered from GE Transportation Systems 22 P42 and eight P32 Genesis diesel locomotives worth $75m, and says it also expects to buy 21 F59PHI units from General Motors EMD for $46m.
Rockwell’s Railroad Electronics unit has won a $10m order for 328 integrated cab displays from GM’s Electro-Motive Division.