Wabtec has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Trimble’s Beena Vision business, which manufacturers machine vision-based lineside rolling stock inspection systems. ‘Beena Vision’s systems, coupled with Wabtec’s TrackIQ portfolio, will create a comprehensive wayside inspection offering’, said Nalin Jain, President of Wabtec’s Digital Electronics business. Trimble will continue to develop cloud-based Internet of Things technology for rolling stock life-cycle management and will increase its focus on rail infrastructure surveying, construction and maintenance.
South Africa’s Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula signed the Luxembourg Rail Protocol on March 22, as a first step towards planned ratification. ‘The fact that the signature of the Luxembourg protocol has come in the same week that Draft White Paper into National Rail Policy was adopted by Parliament and two weeks before Transnet is due to implement third party access shows how serious government is about rail reform in South Africa’, said Mesela Nhlapo, CEO of the African Rail Industry Association.
A partnership between WorldTicket and Deutsche Bahn enables travellers to combine rail tickets from 5 600 stations across Germany with flights on more than 50 global full-service air carriers including Emirates, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa, LATAM, Swiss and United. Travel agents can use major global distribution systems such as Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport to offer multimodal itineraries marketed in the WorldTicket GDS Aggregation product.
Train and bus operator Alternate Concepts Inc has joined the Executive Committee of the US High Speed Rail Coalition. ‘ACI has extensive experience operating rail systems across America, and we welcome their expertise’, said USHSR President Andy Kunz.
Knorr-Bremse says it has achieved Scope 1 and 2 carbon neutrality across all group sites, and is on track to achieve an ‘ambitious’ goal of halving carbon emissions by 2030 without applying carbon credits or offsets. This will be achieved by energy efficiency, in-house energy generation and procurement of energy from renewable sources. Any unavoidable emissions that remain will be further reduced by using additional renewable energy, or otherwise offset by subscribing to Gold Standard climate protection projects.
David S Kim has joined WSP USA as National Transportation Policy & Multimodal Strategy Principal. He was previously Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency ‘David’s experience with federal and state transportation policy and projects over the past two decades makes him a perfect fit for this important national leadership role at WSP’, said Denise Turner Roth, Advisory National Business Line Executive. ’His first-hand understanding of the complex issues and funding challenges those agencies face will prove to be an invaluable asset.’