Rail supplier news from Martinus, STG, Alstom, SISCOG, Railmark and Engelke (Aug. 29)

Martinus North America Inc., a rail systems and infrastructure specialist, has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire Bottom Line Co. LLC, headquartered in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. The acquisition will be the first of its kind in North America for Martinus, which has operations in Australia, New Zealand and South America. Bottom Line specializes in track construction, bridge construction and maintenance, on-track safety and emergency derailment services. The newly formed company will operate as Martinus Bottom Line and serve the Class I, short line and industrial markets. Martinus North America will provide the platform to grow into major projects in transit, high-speed and material supply in North America.

STG Logistics is expanding its intermodal network by providing service into and out of the Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Moncton and Halifax markets in Canada. The additions will complement the company's current services in the Toronto and Montreal, according to a company press release. STG will use its fleet of 15,000 GPS-equipped, 53-foot containers and proprietary Rail Optimizer system to move shipments both intra-Canada and across the border. Mexico routes will use the Falcon Premium and Eagle Premium services offered by Union Pacific Railroad.

The consortium SIF, led by Alstom and including Sofratesa, has been selected by Fideicomiso para el Desarrollo del Sistema de Transporte Masivo (FITRAM) of the Dominican Republic to deliver an integrated Innovia monorail system for the city of Santiago de los Caballeros, Alstom announced in a press release. When completed, the 8-mile, 14-station monorail system will be the first of its kind in the country and in the Caribbean. Alstom’s share of the contract is valued at more than $400 million.

SISCOG has been selected by TransLink through an international tender as the preferred partner to design, develop and maintain a new rail validation system. The cloud-hosted solution will facilitate the delivery of the new rail timetable in 2024, maximize efficiencies across the business, and ensure consistent management of those resources, according to a company press release.The project will be developed and maintained in partnership with Anaeko, a data engineering company responsible for solution hosting, integration and data migration.

Railmark Holdings Inc. on Aug. 27 reached its 25th year of offering rail services in track construction and maintenance, rail-car mechanical, industrial rail switching, rail transportation and transloading. Founded by B. Allen Brown II, the company serves customers from six rail service centers and mobile repair teams across the United States. Railmark also owns and operates two short lines: Yreka Western Railroad and Railmark Industrial Railway.

Engelke Consulting LLC, a freight-rail consulting business, has added federal lobbying and government affairs services. Engelke Consulting’s team has an average of 35 years of experience developing and managing all aspects of freight railroads including railroad startups; rail car, locomotive, track asset management and maintenance; safety program development and administration; marketing management; and new business development, financial management and general operations.