BRITISH rail freight operator English Welsh &Scottish Railway announced on April 28 that it had acquired the assets of wagon suspension developer and supplier Probotec Ltd. The Cardiff-based company had been placed in administration earlier in the month.
Formerly known as Powell Duffryn Rail, Probotec has 40 staff and offices in several European countries, with turnover of £22m in the last trading year. The company’s Axle Motion III, TF25 and LTF13 bogies are approved for use in a number of countries (RG 11.03 p731).
EWS said its Commercial Maintenance Services division could now extend its range of services by offering ’total-life asset solutions to the rail freight wagon market’, from manufacturing through to field maintenance support and spares supply.
Probotec’s existing customers have been assured that EWS ’will take steps to expedite the early delivery of outstanding bogie production by subcontractors’.
Chief Executive Keith Heller said EWS was ’delighted to have acquired a proven and reliable product portfolio for advanced rail freight suspension systems. The acquisition will allow EWS to extend its range of services, and has ensured the long-term availability of these products to the rail freight market across Europe.’
