This year Mercitalia Intermodal is to equip a further 180 wagons with PJM’s WaggonTracker monitoring system, following from 200 wagons upgraded in the past two years. WaggonTracker was selected for its autonomous power supply, scalability, monitoring functions and automated applications such as brake testing, real-time communication between wagons and train drivers as well as compatibility with a future digital automatic coupler.
Rail Cargo Austria has awarded ŽOS Trnava a seven-year framework contract for wagon repairs with an expected value of €50m. ‘By winning the tender, we confirmed the trend that we are becoming the primary repairer of wagons for Austrian Federal Railways’, said director of the Slovakian company’s wagons division Rastislav Bráblik.
Verkehrsbetriebe Peine-Salzgitter is to lease two Stadler EuroDual locomotives from European Loc Pool. They will be used from later this year to haul coal from Hamburg and lime from the Harz to a steel mill in Salzgitter. ‘The versatility of the EuroDual in electric and diesel operation allows us to utilise existing overhead lines for half of our routes, thereby significantly increasing our transport capacity and reducing the number of necessary trips’, said Managing Director Dr Johannes Dreier.
Australian operator Qube is to use chosen Trapeze’s Workforce Management platform to support its east coast rail business. ‘Our rail-specific platform meets the unique planning, rostering, forecasting and compliance needs of operators’, said Trapeze Rail Head of Operations Michael Zink. ‘This proven solution integrates with Qube’s enterprise applications, including their fatigue management and payroll systems, to support increased operational efficiency.’
LTG Cargo has become the first Lithuanian member of UIRR, the International Union for Road-Rail Combined Transport.
As part of its decarbonisation strategy, French insulation and waterproofing manufacturer Soprema is to move materials for the building industry by rail from its Strasbourg plant to a distribution hub in Rouen, investing more than €150 000 in reopening the rail connection to its factory, which gets raw materials by water from a Shell refinery in Germany. Operated in partnership with Fret SNCF, ACPMC and the Port of Strasbourg, the service is expected to handle up to 10 000 tonnes a year for onward distribution in Normandie and western France by road. The company estimates that this will cut its greenhouse gas emissions from distribution by more than 50%.
CSX has signed a deal for Wabtec to modernise 200 AC4400 locomotives in 2024-28 to extend their lives, improve fuel efficiency by 8%, increase tractive effort by 14%, and reliability by 35%. The contract announced on February 13 is in addition to 260 modernisations that CSX previously ordered, the majority of which have now been delivered.