Australia: Goninan has been selected to supply nine new Prospector DMUs to Westrail by 2003 at a cost of A$59m. The fleet will comprise one three-car and two two-car 200 km/h sets for Perth - Kalgoorlie and a 150 km/h two-car set for AvonLink services to Northam.
Azerbaijan: AZR has called tenders for the supply of rail under the Trans-Caucasus rail link project. EBRD is lending US$20·2m towards the US$36·1m total cost, with the EU’s Tacis programme providing US$8m.
China: Queensland Rubber of Australia has won an A$6m contract to supply bearings to support concrete sleepers for floating slab track on Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp’s West Rail project.
Finland: VR Ltd has awarded ABC-NACO Europe AB a US$1m contract to supply 82 Axle-Motion freight bogies with passive steering.
Germany: German Railway has exercised an option with Adtranz worth DM260m euros for 46 more VT612 tilting DMUs by 2003, bringing the total of VT611 and VT612 units to 250.
AVG of Karlsruhe has ordered an extra 10 GT8-100D/2S-M dual-mode LRVs from a consortium of Adtranz (electrical equipment and bogies) and Siemens. Deliveries under the DM57m order are scheduled for completion in April 2002.
Great Britain: Union Railways (North) Ltd has awarded Kier Construction Ltd a £13m contract for advance works at Dagenham on Section 2 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
IIT Research Institute of the USA is to supply a driver-training simulator to English Welsh & Scottish Railway.
India: The Cowans Sheldon business of Rolls-Royce Materials Handling has completed the first of four 140 tonne breakdown cranes ordered by IR for £5m.
Kazakhstan: KTZ has signed a letter of intent with Patentes Talgo for two gauge-convertible trains which could be used on through services to China. In trials, a Talgo set was hauled over the 1200 km between Almaty and Astana in 13h, cutting 8h off the best journey time.
Malaysia: Petronas has awarded Lankhorst Bhd a 34·7m ringgits contract to build a 75 km route from the port of Kuantan to Kertih, scheduled for completion in September 2001. Lankhorst is also undertaking track renewal work worth 40m ringgits for Malayan Railway at Penang, Perlis and Kedah.
Netherlands: NS Reizigers is to buy 15 Class 1300 electric locos from Railion, and refurbish them to haul 150 coaches to be acquired from German Railway in 2001. Four Class 1600 locos will be leased from Railion this year.
Slovakia: ZSR has issued a call for tenders by September for supply of 35 three-car trainsets, backed by EIB funding.
Spain: Renfe has invited bids for interior and exterior design of the C2000 suburban EMU, of which up to 130 may be ordered at a cost of Pts70bn. A consortium of CAF, Siemens, Adtranz and Alstom has a Pts8·5bn contract for an initial batch of 14 sets (RG 6.00 p341).
Dimetronic has won a Pts2·6bn contract to resignal 75route-km of double track between Vitoria and Zum
