Rail supplier news from HDR, Stadler and Transdev (Sept. 30)

Union Pacific Railroad has selected HDR Inc. to provide final design and engineering services for the UP-led portion of the 80th Street Junction Replacements (EW2) project, a major component of the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program’s (CREATE) 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project. HDR’s team will include three Illinois-based firms: DB Sterlin Consultants Inc. (professional engineering and surveying services); Atlas Engineering Group (roadway design and maintenance of traffic); and Wang Engineering (geotechnical services). HDR will produce engineering design for the relocation of two of UP’s mainline tracks between 80th Street to CP Oakdale, a connector track and seven new bridges from 80th Street to CP Oakdale in Chicago.

Stadler and Appenzeller Bahnen (AB) have signed a contract for the manufacture and delivery of a rack-and-pinion rail vehicle for the Rheineck–Walzenhausen rail link in Switzerland. The contract includes equipping the vehicle with Stadler’s communication-based train control solution. The new train on the Rheineck–Walzenhausen line will be the world’s first fully automated overland adhesion/rack-and-pinion rail vehicle. 

Transdev announced a commitment with Tent Partnership for Refugees, an organization that mobilizes the global business community to improve the lives and livelihoods of more than 36 million refugees who have been forcibly displaced from their home countries. The initiative is part of Transdev’s workforce development strategy and aligned with its purpose of serving the common good. Transdev is among some of the United States’ largest employers and best-known brands that are collectively committed to hire and train tens of thousands of refugees in the United States over the next three years. The United States is currently welcoming refugees from Afghanistan, Ukraine and other crisis-stricken countries, Transdev officials said in a press release.