Croatian rail freight carrier HZ Cargo has bought a land plot in the Adriatic port of Ploce worth HRK 125 million (EUR 16.9 million).

Latvian rail freight in January and February has been 3.8% higher than last year in the same period, informed LDz Cargo, which is a subsidiary of Lithuanian Railways (Latvijas dzelzcels).

Serbian Railways proposed to increase the costs of transport for domestic freight traffic by 15% due to price variations that affect the cost of rail traffic.

Deutsche Bahn’s Board Member Ulrich Homburg said that he was optimistic that the Intergovernmental Commission would approve the operation of ICE trains through the Tunnel in early summer this year. France opposes.

On 22 March 2011 Alstom presented to the members of its European Works Forum (EWF) a draft adaptation plan focused on some industrial sites of its Transport Sector in Germany, Italy and Spain. This plan is designed to address the lower demand in these countries and to keep the competitiveness of its industrial base.

On 22 of March in Minsk Belarussian Railways presented new Flirt produced by Swiss company Stadler. In official presentation that took place in Minsk participated, among others, representatives of the state, local authorities and Stadler's officials and representatives of CIS countries.

Slovenian and Croatian railways are considering renewing the traffic on the route Kumrovec – Sava Marof. The information was released by the general director of Slovenian railways Goran Brankovic and CEO of Croatian railways Zlatko Rogozar.

Bulgaria saw the largest decline in rail freight transport in the whole bloc (-33%). In the same period, rail freight transport decreases were observed in all Member States, except Estonia, which remained nearly stable.

PKP Cargo started own cargo operations in Germany for the company Mosolf, which means that the biggest Polish and the second biggest EU freight carrier is trying to compete on german cargo transport market.

Offer of Polish company Newag was chosen in a tender for modernization of 21 EMUs operating in Pomerania region.

Research and development will be adapted to market conditions as a field of investment and competition - informed RZD in official communicate.

Czech Railways are planning to purchase 32 express cars from Austrian Railways OBB. Despite the fact that cars are thirty years old their standard is high. But the main advantage is extremely low price.

Slovak environmental and social organizations have called the EU institutions and Slovak government to cease reallocation of fund from operational programmes to road investments.

On 21 of March in Paris a meeting between General Assembly of the Association Franco-Russian Dialogue, co-chaired by Russian side is the president of RZD Vladimir Yakunin.

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Serbian Railways launched a call for consultants to prepare a study to improve the energy efficiency of the Serbian railways.

Croatian rolling stock manufacturer TZV Gredelj delivered on 21 March 2011 four upgraded and reconstructed train engines to American company National Railway Equipment (NREC).

Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet reported that Alstom Hungaria Zrt, Hungarian subsidiary of Alstom, will lay off nearly 180 of its workers.

The first presentation of Integrated Communication Centre at the train station in Poznan Glowny will take place on 23 March 2011. It will be held as a part of Polish – Hungarian Friendship Day.

Prime minister of Ukraine, Mykola Azarov, suggested that Azerbaijan could participate in the development of transport Viking (Baltic-Black Sea) in the direction of the Caucasus and Central Asia.

According to official information provided by Ukrainian Railways, Ukrainian railway stock is lacking about 10-15 thousand cars. To cover this demand Ukrainian Railways have launched a programme “Ukrainian Car”.