Trenitalia has signed an agreement for its tickets to be sold through Chinese travel agency Ctrip’s online platforms.
Kapsch CarrierCom has been appointed as distributor and integrator of 3Binfra’s Infralife asset management technology, which integrates service and diagnostic systems, allocates measurement data and visualises individual failures along a railway. ‘The long-term strategic partnership with Kapsch CarrierCom allows us to effectively position Infralife in the international market’, said 3Binfra CEO Stefan Pertl. ‘In addition, Kapsch will develop extensive product expertise for joint implementation projects, providing the infrastructure customer with IT, railway and asset management know-how from a single source.’
The Greenbrier Companies expects revenue of $650m and unadjusted earnings of $0·07 to $0·09 per share for its second quarter. ‘Order demand was solid overall’, said Chairman & CEO William A Furman. ‘However, we are disappointed with our earnings. This was largely driven by three factors. First, poor manufacturing execution in Romania compounded by supplier delivery failures and railcar contract loss contingencies created losses in the quarter at our European railcar manufacturing operations. Next, lower overhead absorption due to increased labour costs and lower railcar build activity at our Gunderson manufacturing facility weakened results. Finally, continued challenges in railcar repair operations, including extreme winter weather and closure costs, impacted earnings. Collectively, these items negatively impacted results by $0·29 per share. Greenbrier is actively addressing these performance issues and will resolve them.’
Arcadis has acquired a majority stake in EAMS Group, which provides intelligent asset management technology for the rail sector and other transport and infrastructure markets.
Thales has opened an Engineering Competence Centre in București to serve the ground transport, space, aerospace, defence and security markets.
On March 22 the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research & Education launched the three-year DIGI-RAIL project to support businesses in the UK’s West Midlands region which are looking for opportunities under Network Rail’s digital railway programme. ‘By working with SMEs on specific R&D challenges, we anticipate seeing the development of new products, processes and services into the rail industry, which will in turn provide substantial benefit to the businesses through increased turnover and the creation of new jobs in the region’, said Dr Al-Amin Dabo, Business Engagement Manager for the DIGI-RAIL project.
Dassault Systèmes is to supply its 3dexperience virtually reality platform to Alstom, which will use it to accelerate the delivery of trainsets ordered by Trenitalia. Trenitalia will be able to visualise and configure virtual versions of the trains before they are built, and then the design and engineering data can be converted into visual assets that it can use in sales and marketing campaigns.
The UK’s Rail Safety & Standards Board has announced price reductions for the Rail Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme. This is intended to help reduce the cost of doing business with rail for 4 000 suppliers, including many SMEs. The audit day-rate is being cut by £50, and membership fees for suppliers are being cut by up to 4·38% from May 1.
Travel management company Capita Travel & Events has partnered with Seatfrog to enable its customers to be able to bid to upgrade to first class on UK inter-city operator LNER's services.
San Francisco metro operator BART attended the Small Business Construction Expo in Oakland on March 22 to help business owners learn about how to participate in its construction projects.
Cubic Transportation System has completed the move of helpdesk and service centre functions for Transport for London’s revenue collection contract from Surrey in southeast England to Cubic’s Global Operations Centre at Stockton in the northeast. TfL is to transfer a number of services from its own Technology & Data Operations Centre to the GOC, which also supports Cubic systems in Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, New York and Sydney.
