Port Authority of New York & New Jersey announced on October 17 that it will spend $500m to install communications-based train control on the PATH metro network. Replacing a fixed-block signalling system installed in 1969, the CBTC will reduce headways to give an estimated 20% increase in capacity. Work is to begin in 2008 for completion six years later. Next year will see the start of deliveries of 340 new cars ordered from Kawasaki Railcar which will replace the current fleet by 2011.
Last month Rhein-Neckar Verkehr placed an order with Bombardier for 19 low-floor trams worth €52m, exercising a second option following from an original contract for 36 cars signed in 1998. They will be delivered from Bombardier's Bautzen plant between July 2009 and May 2010, and follow a previous option for 16 cars taken up in 2004.
The government of the Macau Special Administrative Region has announced that funding is in place to allow work to start on the territory's first light rail line. The 20 km line linking the Macau Peninsula to the islands of Taipa and Coloane should be completed by 2011.
On September 28 Napoli's city government appointed Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari as main contractor for the 3·1 km underground extension of metro Line 6 from Mergellina to Municipio. The contract is worth €426m, and completion is planned for 2012.
The first of 22 dual-voltage Flexity Outlook trams being built by Bombardier arrived in the Austrian city of Innsbruck on the night of October 16, and was formally handed over to operator IVB on October 18. Ordered at a cost of €55m, the metre-gauge vehicles will run under 600 V DC electrification in the city and 750 V DC at a top speed of 70 km/h on the 18 km Stubaital inter-urban line to Fulpme. The 27·6 m long cars are being built in Wien with Elin electrical equipment, for delivery by the end of 2008.
On October 2 a 1·2 km extension to Lyon's metro Line A opened from Laurent Bonnevay to La Soie in the Vaulx-en-Velin district, where there is an interchange with the T3 light rail line.
