NS subsidiary NedTrain is to build a €30m wheelset maintenance and refurbishment hall at its Haarlem site. The current hall with life-expired machinery will become a wheelset storage site. The new facility will employ about 100 people, have the capacity to handle 3 000 bogies/year and be responsible for inspection and repair of about 13 000 wheelsets across the NS fleet.
Uralvagonzavod and Czech Export Bank have agreed to restructure loans agreed in 2007 for the purchase of rolling stock manufacturing machinery. The loan will now be restructured at 2·9% per annum until 2021. UVZ said ‘given the ongoing sanction policy of the EU and US against UVZ and its subsidiaries, the arrangements reached are a major positive case that would contribute to continuing co-operation between Russia and the Czech Republic.’
Systra has acquired Scott Lister, an Australian company specialising in systems engineering and risk management, largely for the railway sector. Systra said the deal would reinforce its skills in systems safety and integration, enable it to build up its activity in Australia which it sees as 'a high-potential market for transport infrastructure', and approach the New Zealand market.
A-Plant Rail has opened a service centre in Doncaster to supply equipment for electrification projects. ‘We have made a large investment in this new location, the facilities are state-of-the-art and we have a fleet of new specialist equipment ranging from height and stagger gauges, crimping tools and wire de-kinkers to static work benches for the forming and manufacturing of droppers to build overhead line cables‘, said Service Centre Manager Matt Cartwright on March 29.
Rocla Concrete Tie has opened a sleeper manufacturing facility at Fort Pierce on the Florida East Coast Railway network. It has a capacity of 1 000 sleepers/day and will primarily serve FECR and the Brightline project, with the capacity to supply other railways in the southeast USA.
UK company SSE has formed a dedicated Rail business division within its SSE Enterprise business services arm. ‘The timing is right for SSE to expand its capabilities in the rail sector and become a key provider of holistic electrification, power and mechanical and electrical services throughout the railway industry’, said SSE Enterprise Managing Director Jim McPhillimy.
