Hitachi Rail has signed a 20-year virtual power purchase agreement for A2A to install more than 40 000 PV solar panels over the next two years on the roofs and land at its Reggio Calabria, Napoli and Pistoia plants. The panels will be capable of producing around 19 GWh/year, 60% of the average annual needs of Hitachi Rail’s six Italian sites, and are expected to save 7 000 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to planting 42 000 trees.
The UIC General Assembly voted on December 8 to ratify the decision taken by the UIC Chair and Director General on March 4 to suspend the involvement of Russian and Belarusian railways in UIC activities.
France is providing a guarantee worth €49·4m to support an EBRD loan of €150m to Ukraine’s national railway Ukrzaliznytsya. This will help finance critical operating expenses to ensure continued freight and passenger operations, as well as evacuation and humanitarian aid services.
Liebherr-Transportation Systems is to sell its stake in the Zhejiang Liebherr Zhongche Transportation Systems joint venture to partner Zhejiang Zongche Railway Vehicles Equipment Co by the end of the year. Liebherr will in future access the Chinese market through its wholly owned Liebherr Transportation Systems (China) Co business, which will be the only company offering Liebherr HVAC and hydraulic actuation systems in China. ‘We all agreed that now is the right time for each partner to go their own way’, said Liebherr Managing Director Dr Adrian Gunis. ‘We are looking forward to further accompanying the local industry successfully through the ongoing market consolidation phase.’
On December 12 Cubic Transportation Systems opened a global software engineering centre in Perth, where it now employs 65 people. ‘Our CTS team in Perth, led by Aleksander Dimitrijevic, has long been a huge success story for Cubic as more cities — and now even countries — choose our account-based ticketing solutions for their public transport’, said Senior Vice-President of Product & Engineering Galen Chui. Citing Western Australia’s ‘world-class universities, robust economy and attractive, active lifestyle’, he said ‘we need the right software and product engineers for the job, and they need the right tools and facilities to do their job’.
Alstom and hydrogen producer Air Products have signed a memorandum of understanding for the deployment of hydrogen technology in rail. ‘Both parties will do everything in their power to accelerate the introduction of hydrogen in rail in the Czech Republic’, said Dan Kurucz, Managing Director of Alstom in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He said Alstom was a pioneer in hydrogen trains, and ‘with Air Products, we can also supply the necessary fuelling stations and build the hydrogen infrastructure’.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering is to be integrated into Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with effect from April 1 2023. This supports MHI Group’s plans to focus on energy transition and smart infrastructure, including new mobility and logistics.
Alstom is to use Actasys thermal management devices with embedded diagnostic and predictive maintenance features to protect sensitive electronics in train control and monitoring systems.