UVZ & AVR has begun constructing a rolling stock assembly works at Ahtme in northeast Estonia. The first two assembly lines will be installed in November, and the Russian-Estonian joint stock company expects to employ up to 400 people to produce up to 3000 passenger carriages and tank wagons per year.
Voestalpine is to invest €66m modernising the rail rolling line at its Leoben-Donawitz plant at the end of 2005. The work will reduce the time needed to change rollers and allow rails to be produced to tighter tolerances.
The Centre for Rail Skills replaced the Rail Industry Training Council on June 30. Owned by the UKrailway industry, the Centre’s role is to represent the industry in all matters relating to vocational education and training matters.
Transport and architectural planning company TranSystems Corp has acquired consultants Multisystems. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Multisystems specialises in service planning, fare policy and technology, accessibility and paratransit.
German Railway’s IT service provider Deutsche Bahn Systems has signed an alliance agreement with Accenture for the development of a new customer relationship management system and maintaining order management technology for DB Cargo.
Consultancy Scott Wilson Railways has opened an office in York in the UK. It is headed by Mark Jackson, who said it is ’starting with a core of civil engineering personnel and will gradually develop to include signalling teams and an operations and planning group’.
Holland LP’s M-Bar-D division opened an eighth wagon repair facility on August 15. The site in Norfolk, Nebraska, will carry out inspection and maintenance work for Nebraska Central Railroad and other customers.
