The American Track subsidiary of industrial rail inspection, construction, maintenance, terminal and support services company North American Rail Solutions has acquired Strategic Rail, which provides services including material handling, wagon movements and vegetation control in the Great Lakes area. The merged companies will operate as American Track.
Siemens Mobility has opened a gearbox production line and welding competence centre for converter cabinets at its Cornellà plant in Spain. The initial production capacity of approximately 500 heavy gearboxes per year is expected to increase to meet demand in the Iberian market.
Stadler inaugurated a maintenance facility for Flirt Akku battery trains north of Rendsburg in Schleswig-Holstein on May 29. It has a hall with two tracks including pits, roof access and cleaning facilities. There are eight outdoor bays with overhead electrification where the batteries can be recharged, and diagnostic equipment for monitoring the status of the batteries in order to decide when is the best time for maintenance or replacement.
Danny Broad is to step down as Chair of the Australasian Railway Association at the annual general meeting on November 25; the board is to establish a sub-committee to oversee the process to determine the next Chair. Broad will continue as Chair of the TrackSAFE Foundation into 2025.
On June 11 S&P Global Ratings affirmed Eurofima’s long- and short-term issuer credit ratings of ‘AA/A-1+’ and revised outlook to stable from negative. Eurofima’s risk-adjusted capital ratio has improved owing to the company’s efforts to diversify its very concentrated loan book and stronger equity generation, and the stable outlook reflects S&P’s expectation that its capital adequacy will remain strong and the institution will preserve its relevance in the market, while funding and liquidity will remain robust.
Rhein-Ruhr transport authority VRR and neighbouring bodies are assessing options for the future financing of rolling stock which would take into account the needs of manufacturers and operators and the whole life-cycle of vehicles. Under the current ‘Nordrhein-Westfalen model’, public authorities finance vehicles which are made available to contracted operators.
Atos Group’s digital, cloud, big data and security business Eviden has joined UNIFE. It has also joined the UNITEL committee dedicated to the development and implementation of FRMCS, and plans to join the UNIFE Cyber-Security Working Group.
Cubic Transportation Systems has appointed Dino Beverakis as Vice-President & General Manager, Asia Pacific and Head of Australia, were he will drive the modernisation of transport ticketing systems.
Infrastructure planning and engineering services company Lochner has partnered with operational data and asset management information integration software company Praedico to offer digital twin and asset management systems for passenger and freight rail clients across North America.
PJM is supporting the dynamic testing of the Servicejet rescue trains which ÖBB-Infrastruktur ordered from Stadler.
French standardisation association AFNOR has awarded Alstom in Italy the highest Exemplary level of the Corporate Social Responsibility label.
