Australia: Western Australia PTA has awarded UK firm Volo TV a £1m contract to provide at-seat touchscreen entertainment on Perth – Kalgoorlie trains.
Angola: CNR began shipping 120 coaches to Angola in late February.
Canada: Export-Import Bank of the United States provided a C$83·1m loan guarantee to support the sale of six EMD SD70ACe locos, American Rail Car and Freightcar America wagons and mining equipment to Iron Ore Co of Canada.
Europe: DSB Øresund has awarded DSB Vedligehold in Denmark and Euromaint in Sweden contracts to maintain the Øresundstog EMU fleet.
France: European inspectors have visited CNR Jinan to asses the 40 tank wagons being built for French company ATIR Rail under the Chinese firm’s first order to supply rolling stock to an EU country.
Germany: On February 24 Kassel transport authority KVG ordered four more Bombardier Flexity Classic 70% low-floor trams at a cost of €2·5m each, as an option on a February 2010 contract for 18 which were due to enter service last month.
UniCredit Leasing has provided Netinera Deutschland with a €73·2m loan to fund the purchase of seven GTW and eight double-deck trainsets from Stadler for use around Berlin.
Hungary: On February 15 the Ganz-Skoda Közlekedesi joint venture signed a KC1·85bn contract to supply 31 ForCity 25T five-section low-floor bi-directional trams to Miskolc, including a KC175m 10-year maintenance option.
Israel: Despite union protests, ISR has signed an outsourcing contract for Bombardier to maintain 130 coaches it has supplied.
Italy: Liebherr Transportation Systems is to supply Bombardier’s bogie plant at Siegen in Germany with 800 electro-hydraulic actuators for active lateral suspension on the 50 V300 Zefiro high speed trains ordered by Trenitalia.
Mozambique: Transnet Rail Engineering’s Uitenhage plant has delivered within five months a fleet of 200 wagons of 71 m3 capacity ordered by Rio Tinto for Moatize – Beira coal traffic.
Myanmar: Under a technology transfer agreement, CNR Changchun is assisting with the development of a rolling stock manufacturing plant in Mandalay which will have the capacity to produce 120 coaches/year.
Pakistan: PR has begun taking delivery of 202 coaches ordered from China National Machinery Import & Export Corp.
Russia: Metrowagonmash has signed contracts to supply 682 stainless steel cars to Moscow metro in 2012-13. They will have lower energy consumption and operating costs than the cars they are to replace, and faster acceleration to 80 km/h.
Brunswick Rail has signed a three-year contract to provide fertiliser and chemical company Extes-Transport with 125 open wagons and 100 vans produced the Armavir Heavy Machine Plant.
Siberian Coal Energy Co has put into service the first Tikhvin wagons with Barber S-2-R bogies. The hoppers offer a 5·5 tonnes higher capacity than previous Russian designs, with longer maintenance intervals.
Turkey: CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive’s US$3912m bid was the lowest for a contract to supply 342 metro cars to Ankara (RG 3.12 p20), beating Hyundai Rotem and CAF subject to final review. Turkish firms must provide 30% content for the first 75 trains, and 51% for the rest.
UK: Leasing company Angel Trains confirmed on February 29 that it had signed contracts to finance 20 four-car Class 350/3 Siemens Desiro EMUs for use by London Midland and First TransPennine Express from December 2013, ‘as part of a contract worth around £145m’.
Icon Polymer is to supply 15000 inter-car inner barriers to prevent unauthorised egress through the emergency end doors of trains on London Underground’s Jubilee, Central and Waterloo & City lines.
Railway Projects Ltd has awarded Liebherr Transportation a contract to supply 20 HVAC systems for the refurbishment of ScotRail Class 158 DMUs owned by Angel Trains.
USA: Wabtec is to supply braking, door, toilet, HVAC and other components for the 130 coaches CAF is building for Amtrak.
Los Angeles County MTA has selected KinkiSharyo to supply 78 LRVs for the Expo Line, Gold Line Foothill and Crenshaw/LAX light rail line projects, with four options for an additional 157 vehicles. These would replace Blue Line cars and be available for further extensions and service expansion.
GE Transportation is to implement RMI’s ExpressYard car repair billing and operations management software across 20 RailAmerica repair sites.
