Iranian national railway RAI plans to call tenders this month for the electrification of the Tehran - Mashhad line, along with the supply of 70 electric locomotives.
Lithuania's Ministry of Transport & Communications is developing a proposal to seek EU assistance to upgrade the 104 km Vilnius - Kainas line. Four double-deck trains would be acquired, and 160 km/h running would cut the journey to 45 min from around 1 h 15 min.
Caltrain is to begin procurement processes this year for the electrification of its 80 km San Francisco - San Jose route. A decision will be made this year between the use of loco haulage or the adoption of EMUs, with electric services anticipated to start in 2014.
On January 14 Bangladesh's Ministry of Communications approved a U$5·2bn strategic transport plan for Dhaka. The 20-year plan for the capital includes proposals for a US$3·1bn underground metro network.
Ukraine's Ministry of Transport is working with other departments to finalise plans for an 37·5bn hryvnia rail upgrade programme. This aims to introduce 200 km/h services from Kyiv to Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and L'viv by the time of the Euro 2012 football championship.
At a cost of US$8·5m, Central Andino Railway of Peru is planning to convert a further 15 locomotives to run on natural gas (RG 7.06 p399) during the course of 2008. Five 3 600 hp locos to be acquired at a cost of US$5m will also be converted.
