The Technical University Chemnitz and Deutsche Bahn will establish a digital railway test site to explore digitalisation and automation technologies for the rail sector under realistic conditions. The project would use federal funding.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to provide €205m to Adif Alta Velocidad to purchase rolling stock for the maintenance of the Spanish rail network.

Order goes to Siemens Mobility• Future investment in strong rail system • New ICE trains to initially run between NRW and Munich • DB mainline fleet to grow 20 percent in coming years

France-based SNCF Réseau has chosen an integrated solution of Trimble Quadri and Trimble Connect, which will operate as the main system in its Enterprise Common Data Environment (CDE)

Both the Ceneri Base Tunnel and the 4-metre corridor between Basel and Chiasso will become operational in December 2020. Rail freight will benefit from the fact that more cargo can be moved on to the north-south axis. The Gateway Basel Nord will help in these efforts

The announcements were made on 9 June during the ‘EU’s Covid-19 relief measures for the rail sector’ webinar, which was planned by the International Railway Summit.

Bombardier Transportation has signed an agreement with QuEST Global to extend their current partnership to enhance the cooperation to develop engineering capabilities for the rail industry.

Deutsche Bahn, the German transport minister Andreas Scheuer, the Eisenbahn- und Verkehrsgewerkschaft (EVG), DB’s works council as well as the employer association AGV MOVE have signed the ‘Bündnis für unsere Bahn‘ (‘Alliance for our Railway’) in Berlin.

Transdev has signed a number of operating contracts in Sweden, including for suburban rail, worth around 1.2 billion euros.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted economies around the world as it has forced people’s daily lives to a grinding halt. The coronavirus outbreak is reasonably expected to have lasting impacts on our individual behaviour and lifestyle, particularly on the way we work, consume and travel. In regard to the latter, transport and mobility are at the epicentre of the immediate and long-term challenges posed by the global health crisis. From urban traffic to international trade flow, bustling movement has given way to hushed calm. Many countries have closed their borders and imposed curfews – resulting in sharp reductions in transport demand at both the local and continental level.