Railnews.co.uk

New Zealand buys back its railways

THE New Zealand government—whose railway privatisation in 1993 influenced the Conservative plans in Britain for selling off rail operations—is re-nationalising its TranzRail train and ferry services. full story

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  German Rail part-privatisation to go ahead

  GERMANY'S state railway operator Deutsche Bahn is to be partially privatised after the country’s coalition government worked out a compromise deal. Just under a quarter of passenger and freight operations could be sold by the end of this year.

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  DB Schenker runs 15,000th train for Audi

  DB Schenker—which now owns Britain’s EWS train operating company— has just transported the 15,000th block train between Audi’s plant in Ingolstadt and its Hungarian production site in Györ (reports eyefortransport.com).

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  Partial privatisation of Deutsche Bahn near to agreement

  Germany's coalition of Conservative and Social Democrats is close to a deal to sell a quarter of Deutsche Bahn (DB), one of the largest rail networks in Europe, to private investors.

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  Germany scraps maglev airport link

  Plans for a magnetic levitation rail link between Munich airport and city centre have collapsed due to soaring costs, ending Bavarian dreams of hosting Europe's first commercial application of the high-speed technology developed by Germany’s Siemens company.

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  225mph super trains unveiled in France

  While the debate continues in the UK about whether new high speed lines should be built, French train builder Alstom has unveiled a new train which can carry passengers at 225mph.