On 12 December, German railway Deutsche Bahn (DB) will launch a direct railway link from the city of Szczecin to Prague.

The Presidium of the Russian government considered the investment programme and financial plan for Russian Railways (RZD) for 2011-2013 on 1 December.

Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) awarded a contract for the supply of gondola cars.

Serbian Railways published its freight transportation results for the first nine months of the year.

- The locomotive fleet has traditionally been one of the key elements of the network’s operations. Its efficiency and reliability dictates not only the rhythm and results of the company’s work, but also the quality of freight and passenger services - Vladimir Yakunin said.

The consortium of Austrian Alpine Bau GmbH and Slovenian Meteorit will construct a rail bridge in central Serbia.

For the next two years, Vossloh AG expects to continue to grow. - In order to step up our growth, we intend to again significantly raise our capital expenditures in 2011 - says Werner Andree, CEO of Vossloh AG.

Rumyana Mihailova, the head of human resources department in Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ), told Focus News Agency, that optimization of the company’s workforce has its serious business and economy logic.

- It is a one, big farce – Adrian Furgalski, the Program Director at Railway Business Forum, commented on the fact, that Pendolino trains for PKP Intercity will not be equipped with the tilting system.

- New Pendolino articulated trains, which PKP Intercity wants to order from Alstom, will not be equipped with tilting system – Railway Market – CEE Review learned from the French producer.

HZ Cargo, the Croatian Rail Cargo operator, recently signed the contracts to use Ab Ovo’s rail freight IT-solution the Rail Cargo System (RCS). The implementation will be carried out in close cooperation with local implementation partner King ICT.

The state-owned Hungarian Railways (MAV) received approval for issue of bonds.

Effective January 1, 2011 Mirko Pahl has been appointed to the management board of DB Schenker Rail Deutschland AG with responsibility for production.

On 18 November, the Croatian rolling-stock manufacturer TZV Gredelj has delivered the JT 38CW-DC series locomotive to Kosovo Railways.

At the end of November, Strabag Sp. z o.o. and Galeria Katowicka Sp. z o.o. signed a contract for the construction of the new main railway station in Katowice in Poland.

Russian Railways (RZD) and Vnesheconombank signed a memorandum of cooperation in the area of infrastructure projects.

The state-owned Czech Railways announced, that it wants to record a CZK 320m (EUR 12.8m) profit in 2011.

- Lithuanian Railways (LG) understands the difficult economical situation of the country and, responding to the request of the Prime Minister, decided to find solutions aimed at reducing the deficit in the state budget – the company wrote in a statement.

- We would like PKP Cargo and PKP LHS to be in one capital group. This is our goal – said Andrzej Wach, the President of PKP SA, at the ceremony, at which both operators joined the company CZH, Euroterminal Slawkow Sp. z o.o.

A hurried agreement on new EU legislation on bus and coach passengers was reached on 30 November between European Parliament and Council representatives.