Argentina: The Emepa workshops in Chascomús are due this month to begin refurbishing 34 coaches for Uepfp, the operating company established by the province of Buenos Aires.
Australia: ANI Bradken has ordered 240 sets of air braking equipment and bogie-mounted TMX brakes from Wabco Freight Car Products for wagons to run on the Hamersley Iron Railway.
Thermo King is to supply 25 kW air-conditioning units for EMUs ordered by Melbourne Transportation Enterprises from Alstom (RG 1.00 p10). Over 300 sets are to be supplied for 5m euros.
Austria: ÖBB has exercised its outstanding option with Siemens Transportation Systems for an additional 225 Taurus Bo-Bo electric locos for delivery by 2006 (RG 9.99 p599), bringing the total order to 400 locos worth DM2·1bn.
Bulgaria: BDZ has awarded an 18·7m euros track upgrading contract to ZS Brno of the Czech Republic.
Canada: Under an £8m contract, Brecknell, Willis is supplying 80 km of conductor rail for Vancouver SkyTrain Line 2. The rail has an aluminium core with a contact surface in 3CR12 stainless steel from Cromweld.
Chile: MPI de México is overhauling five diesel locomotives for Codelco. Four units will be delivered by the end of this year, and the fifth in 2002.
China: Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp has awarded Alcatel CGA Transport and Gunnebo Metro a 1·25m euros contract to supply security and revenue collection equipment for West Rail Phase 1.
Czech Republic: Subterra and Dopravní stavby Holding Brno are to upgrade the 23·8 km Otrokovice - Prerov route for 160 km/h operation by November 2002.
France: Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot has asked RATP and SNCF to install air-conditioning in all RER and suburban rolling stock operating in the Ile-de-France region, as well as metro trainsets and light rail vehicles.
Germany: Pfaff-Silberblau has supplied nine lifting systems for an SNCB loco maintenance depot in Antwerpen for DM1·4m; the 44 screw jacks can each lift 25 tonnes to a height of 2·75m. Underfloor lifting equipment worth DM1·6m will be supplied for the Express Rail Link depot at Salak Tinggi (RG 7.99 p432).
Great Britain: To haul Railtrack works trains under a £30m contract won by its Heavy Haul division, Freightliner Ltd has ordered an additional five Class 66 locos from General Motors. Deliveries are planned for early 2001, bringing Freightliner’s Class 66 fleet to 31 locos.
GrantRail has been awarded Contract 339, worth £1·9m, to install trackwork connecting Section 1 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link to the Railtrack network at Fawkham Junction.
Railtrack has named Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance as preferred bidder for an IMC2000 contract worth £250m covering the East Coast main line. Due to start on January 1 2001, the contract involves maintaining infrastructure on 554 route-miles, including 1500 switches and crossings as well as 4000 track circuits.
Israel: IR has awarded Trinecke Zeleznarny of the Czech Republic a US$11m contract to supply 30000 tonnes of UIC 60, 54 and 50 rail over the next five years.
Italy: Acciona of Spain has been awarded a contract worth 150·2m euros to build a 13 km tunnel from a new station in the centre of Bologna (RG 5.00 p310) to San Ruffillo, part of the Bologna - Firenze high speed line. The work is expected to take 64 months to complete.
Mexico: TFM has awarded Alstom a 12-year contract worth 93m euros to upgrade and maintain the 600 km Celaya - Lazaro C
