MEED reported that Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport has extended the closing date to November 5th 2009 for pre qualified consulting firms to submit bids for an 18 month study into the emirate’s proposed tram system. Join discussion...

The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is turning to private finance to pay for future work on the Dubai Metro with plans to add 240km of track and 250km of tramlines. The government is considering three forms of financing - Build Operate Transfer (BOT), Direct Public Finance (DPF), and Public Private Partnerships (PPP). Join discussion...

Led by Bouygues, Bombardier and Véolia, the consortium also includes Colas, local architects and financial partners such as AXA and Société Générale. Tram'Tiss was preferred to the rival Run Ram consortium led by Vinci, Alstom and Caisse des Depôts et Consignations. Join discussion...

BY MELBOURNE'S standards, the tram and bus network of the French city of Bordeaux is tiny: 44 trams running on 43 kilometres of track, and 488 buses. But for the company selected by the Bordeaux transport authority to operate this network, the money at stake is big; they will be paid 750 million euros ($A1.4 billion) over four years. Join discussion...