Railway supply industry news round-up

Iron Horse Terminals and Iron Horse Services are to expand their Beaumont, Texas site with a multi-purpose tank wagon cleaning and maintenance facility by early 2022. ‘Built with efficiencies in mind, equipment will flow through the terminal effortlessly and with an in-house portal customers will have real-time access to assets at all time’, said IHS Vice-President Steve Martin.

Vibration isolation specialist Getzner Werkstoffe has opened a €53m extension to its main site at Bürs in Austria. This provides 8 000 m² of additional floor space, 120 modern workstations and a warehouse to support a doubling of production volumes. ‘We’re especially proud of our high-bay warehouse, which is unique the world over in terms of its design and size’, said CEO Jürgen Rainalter. ’It’s where we store our vibration protection mats — which can be up to 31 m long and weigh 14 tonnes — like in a chest of drawers. From there, they can be automatically wound into rolls. It serves as a quick-response warehouse and gives us a safety buffer which means we can supply customers at short notice.’

CAF Signalling and Polish company Kombud have formed a strategic alliance to develop an interface between Kombud’s MOR 3 electronic interlocking and CAF Signalling’s Auriga ETCS Level 2 range. CAF Signalling said synergies between the companies’ R&D departments would fill a gap in the Polish market. ‘We complement each other and can offer advanced technology in a country where the railway sector is in full development’, said Pascal Cléré, Managing Director of CAF Signalling. Kombud CEO Artur Marcinkiewicz added that ‘we do not need a long-term certification procedure to implement it, because individual elements of the system have the required EC certificates of interoperability’.

Caisse des Dépôts has received a binding offer from alternative asset management group Tikehau Capital to acquire a 42% stake in engineering company Egis by the end of the year. Tikehau Capital’s T2 Energy Transition Fund would hold 40% to 44% of Egis’ capital, with CdD retaining 34% alongside Egis’ management and staff who would hold between 22% and 26%. CdD said this would be a major step in Egis’s strategic plan to double its turnover within five years and position the group in the world’s top 10 engineering companies.

The European Investment Bank and Swedish rolling stock leasing organisation Transitio have signed a SKr480m loan agreement to finance the acquisition of 12 Stadler double-decker EMUs for Mälardalstrafik services in the Stockholm-Mälaren region.

The board of Association of American Railroads subsidiary Transportation Technology Center Inc has named Kari Gonzales as its next President. ‘Having served across all segments of the organisation, Kari knows first-hand the unparalleled capabilities of its researchers and has the vision to help chart its course for the future’, said TTCI Chairman and AAR President & CEO Ian Jefferies on September 22.

Rail, mining, infrastructure and industrial wireless monitoring technology company Ackcio has raised S$4m in a Series A funding round led by Atlas Ventures and including Enterprise Singapore, Wavemaker Partners, Aletra Capital Partners, AccelerAsia Ventures, Seasight Holdings and angel investors.

Jason G Anderson has joined the board of Trinity Industries with effect from September 8, following the resignation of Brandon B Boze. Anderson is a member of the investment team at ValueAct Capital, Trinity’s largest shareholder, and will serve as a member of the Finance & Risk and Human Resources committees.