Auxo Investment Partners has acquired Ferrovia Services, which provides vegetation management services across the USA. Founder Jeff Welsh, CEO Allen Blythe and COO Ryan Cammack will retain a ‘meaningful ownership stake’, with Blythe and Cammack continuing in their existing roles and Welsh remaining in an advisory role. Ferrovia will be integrated with Auxo’s recently purchased Genesis Rail Services business as it develops a diversified rail maintenance and mechanical services portfolio. Advisors and lenders on the transaction included Miller Johnson, Barnes & Thornburg, BDO USA, Marsh & McLennan, Aon, Strategies Wealth Advisors, Krauter & Co, Thomas Brady & Associates, Miedema Appraisals, Mercantile Bank of Michigan and Graycliff Partners.
Braunschweig-based signalling technology company BBR Verkehrstechnik has been acquired by Stadler, which is to launch a signalling division on January 1. This will include BBR’s electronic interlocking, train detection, turnout operating equipment and onboard systems activities, and the Bär Bahnsicherung business which was acquired in November. Marc Trippel, previously Chief of Staff of the Stadler Group, will head the division, which will have 500 staff at seven locations in Switzerland and Germany.
Eurail has launched a distribution platform enabling travel agencies to sell its mobile Eurail and Interrail Passes online sales and at offline point of sales. ‘Our rail passes also create an interesting opportunity to upsell with other ancillary products in order to deliver an appealing package to customers’, said Business & Growth Manager Silvia Festa.
Joerg Ernst has been appointed CEO of Transmashholding’s TMH International subsidiary with effect from March 1 2022, succeeding TMH Group CEO Kirill Lipa who has been acting CEO of the business since March 2020. Hans Schabert, Executive President and founding member of TMH International, will move to a non-executive role as Chairman of the company. TMH said the changes ’mark the end of a transition period for the company and open a new chapter in its development’.
Passenger rolling stock components specialist Train Bits & More has partnered with Addmaster to offer Biomaster antimicrobial coatings for handrails, seat handles and arm rests. ‘We were challenged by one of the UK’s largest train operating companies to find a solution to replace the traditional inferior Polyester Powder Coat with a system that is durable and can withstand the harsh passenger environment’, said TBM Rail director Neil Smith. ‘The technical and marketing support we received from Addmaster was invaluable in helping us educate our customers about the benefits of Biomaster.’
SNCF Réseau has selected Trimble’s Quadri and Connect software to serve as the central system within its enterprise common data environment for building information modelling for the next three years.
The Australasian Railway Association, Roads Australia, the Infrastructure Sustainability Council and sponsor Arup have commissioned KPMG to produce a research report to be released early next year which will provide recommendations government and industry can adopt to accelerate decarbonisation in the transport sector based on local and global leading practice. ‘There is a huge opportunity for the transport sector to be a driving force in achieving our net zero future. This report will help set the agenda for industry to work together to deliver tangible and positive change for the long term’, said ARA CEO Caroline Wilkie.
