China: Shanghai Shentong Group has awarded Alcatel Shanghai Bell a €30m contract to supply its SelTrac communications-based train control system for the 33·1 km metro Line 6.
France: The Val de Marne local assembly has backed the inclusion of a proposed east-west metro line in the forthcoming Etat-Région plan to be adopted in the first half of 2007. The 22 km orbital line to the south of Paris would run from Arcueil to Fontenay-sous-Bois, providing five interchanges with RER lines and links to metro Lines 7 and 8.
Italy: On July 26 Bombardier announced that it had finalised a €47m contract to supply Palermo city transport authority AMAT with a Cityflo 150 traffic management system and 17 bi-directional Flexity Outlook trams which it will maintain for four years. The first two lines of the three-line light rail network are due to open in December 2009 (RG 2.06 p60).
Malaysia: Datuk Mohd Rashidi Mohd Noor, Chairman of the Jalur Mudra special purpose vehicle, said last month that sufficient funds have been raised to construct a 12·5 km elevated monorail in Johor Bahru. The 1·3bn ringgit elevated line will follow Jalan Tebrau between Sentral and Aeon Jusco, with opening planned by 2010.
Netherlands: Opening of the first phase of RandstadRail has been put back for several weeks from September 3, after a cable fire and high temperatures in July hampered work to convert the Den Haag - Rotterdam Hofplein line from heavy to light rail.
Pakistan: On August 9, Planning & Development Board Chairman Salman Ghani told a feasibility study seminar organised by the Punjab Transport Department that work on a Lahore mass transit scheme will begin in July 2007. The line will be completed in four phases, with inauguration of the first in 2011 when 35 trainsets will run on an elevated double-track route between Shahdara and Yohanabad.
Karachi city government has invited expressions of interest in a build-operate-transfer contract for the construction of a 13·4 km light rail line between Cantonment station and Orangi.
Poland: On June 26 Gdansk tram operator ZKM signed a contract with Bombardier and Vossloh Kiepe for three 26m long 70% low-floor trams, to the same design as vehicles previously ordered by the city of Krakow.
Spain: The CAF-Santana plant in Linares Baeza has delivered the first of 17 five-section LRVs that it is assembling for the Sevilla light metro project. Each low-floor vehicle is 32m long, accommodating a total of 221 standing and 54 seated passengers.
United Kingdom: Consultancy Temple Group has been appointed to provide an environmental impact assessment for the planned 5·5 km extension of London's Docklands Light Railway from Galleons Reach to Dagenham Dock. Application for a Transport & Works Order giving construction powers is planned for early 2008.
USA: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is scheduled to begin construction of a $9·6m underground control centre in 2007. Funded by Department of Homeland Security grants, it will be used to control urban transport in the event of terrorist attack or natural disaster.
On July 28 Bombardier announced it had finalised terms of a $577m contract to supply Chicago Transit Authority with 406 metro cars. Options could bring the total to 706 cars (RG 6.06 p309).
Venezuela: The Infrastructure & Environmental business group of Finnish firm P?€?yry has been awarded a €12·6m contract by Metro de Valencia to carry out design reviews, supervision and project manage- ment of the 6·5 km underground metro Line 1 between Monumental and Miranda. Opening is planned for May 31 2007.
