Bulgaria: Sofia Tramway has ordered 10 T6A2 trams from CKD Praha Holding of the Czech Republic for US$3·5m. Talks have begun with a potential partner for assembly of CKD designs in Sofia.

Canada: General Motors is to supply 20 AC-motored diesel locos of 6 000 hp to Canadian Pacific Railway, completing a two-year investment covering 262 locos at a cost of C$670m. CPR’s Ogden workshops in Calgary is to assemble 42 of the 81 units being supplied by GM. By the end of next year, CPR will have acquired a total of 354 AC-motored locos.

GO Transit has awarded Alstom Transport a C$6m contract to overhaul 16 F59 locos at its Montréal facility. The first 10 are due to return to service by December 31, and the rest in the first half of 1999.

China: Creative Star Ltd has awarded ERG Ltd of Australia a two-year contract to provide second-line maintenance and technical support for the hardware and software of Hong Kong’s Octopus contactless smartcard system, worth over HK$70m if a two-year extension option is exercised. ERG is to upgrade processing capacity from 4million to 10million transactions a day as 2·8million extra cards are issued; 3million transactions are now being handled each day with 4million cards in use.

Great Britain: GIBB Transport Planning has been appointed by Railtrack’s London North Eastern Zone to study market demand for passenger services on the London - Edinburgh East Coast main line. Demand up to 2025 will be forecast to provide a basis for investment decisions, with the study due for completion at the end of November.

Door control software for the Heathrow Express trainsets was supplied by Faiveley Transport, not as stated in RG 8.98 p512.

Poland: Intermec Technologies’ Amtech Systems Division is to supply Dynicom¨ tags and interrogators for a rolling stock diagnostic system on Polish State Railways’ Warszawa - Kunowice route, to enter service in early 1999. AVI tags will be used in conjunction with systems monitoring axle bearings, braking equipment and wheel running surfaces.

Switzerland: BLS L

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