Armenia: Tenders are to be called shortly for a $15·2m upgrading of the Airum - Giumry line, which will be funded by a US$40m loan being negotiated from the World Bank for railway modernisation.
China: Shanghai Municipality has launched a five year bond issue raising 1bn yuan towards construction of metro Line 2.
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Donald Tsang has proposed the sale of a second tranche of Mass Transit Railway Corp, following the successful HK$9·08bn sale of an initial 20% stake.
Europe: The French region of Lorraine and the German Land of Saarland are to provide 8·6m euros to buy five Alstom X73500 railcars for the Metz - Sarbrücken route. Until the new trains arrive in 2003, existing SNCF rolling stock will operate into Germany under a special derogation.
France: Alsace regional council has approved a 2002-10 investment programme worth Fr1·3bn, including the acquisition of 38 two-car DMUs and dual-mode LRVs for Strasbourg and Mulhouse.
Germany: A consortium of Nomura Securities and property company WCM is bidding to buy 113000 railway houses from DB, in a deal expected to raise DM5·1bn.
Latvia: Latvijas Dzelzcels is looking to take out a 1·68m lat loan to fund rolling stock modernisation.
Pakistan: The state Bank of Pakistan has increased the credit limit for Pakistan Railways from Rs600m to Rs2bn due to the railway’s improving financial position.
Poland: Transport Minister Jerzy Widzyk has set newly-commercialised PKP’s share capital at 10bn zlotys. PKP needs about 3·8bn zlotys for its full restructuring in the next two years. Nearly half of this will come from a bond issue, and the remainder through loans from foreign banks.
South Africa: Spoornet has turned its 1999-2000 interim loss of 266m rand into a net profit of 207m rand for the six months to September.
