Deutsche Bahn has begun a structured sale of DB Cargo UK, one of Britain's largest rail freight operators, as the state-owned German group retreats to its Central European core under the terms of a European Commission state-aid ruling, throwing the future ownership of 2,155 workers and more than 200 locomotives into play. Chief executive Andrea Rossi informed staff of the decision on 17 August, confirming that the UK management board had appointed legal and financial advisers

Mitsubishi Electric has agreed to take full ownership of Medcom, one of Europe's leading manufacturers of power electronics for rail vehicles, in a deal that tightens Japanese control over a strategic node of the continent's rolling-stock supply chain and signals foreign confidence in what the buyer calls the world's largest rail market. The Japanese group announced on 7 August that it would acquire the remaining 51 per cent stake in the Warsaw-based company through its wholl

Germany has launched a funding scheme to equip rolling stock with the European Train Control System, releasing money from a €1.7 billion programme aimed at the vehicle side of a signalling upgrade that Brussels regards as one of the largest industrial projects in the continent's history. The onboard funding line, opened this week, targets the ETCS units that trains must carry to run on digitally signalled track, complementing the far larger sums Germany is pouring into tracks

Italy's state railway has placed a firm order for 19 high-speed trains to serve a planned Paris to London route, its first concrete rolling-stock commitment to the Channel Tunnel corridor and a decisive step toward ending the monopoly Eurostar has held since services began in 1994. FS Italiane, through its French subsidiary Trenitalia France, signed the agreement with Hitachi Rail on 7 August as part of an investment of around €2 billion covering construction, long-term maint

Dutch national operator NS has rejected mounting calls to terminate its €600 million rolling-stock contract with Spanish manufacturer CAF, insisting that European procurement law leaves no room to break the deal on moral grounds, in a case that sharpens the tension between ethical campaigning and the rigid rules governing public contracts. The controversy centres on CAF's involvement in a light-rail project serving Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which campaign

HS2 has renegotiated the contracts governing more than 100 kilometres of its high-speed line, tearing up a risk model that left taxpayers exposed to spiralling costs, in the most concrete sign yet that chief executive Mark Wild's sweeping programme reset is gaining traction. The state-owned company confirmed this week that it has signed revised commercial agreements with EKFB and Align, the two main civil engineering joint ventures building the route between London and the We