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American Railcar industries (ARI) plans to expand its southwest Mississippi presence by opening a rail-car maintenance facility in Brookhaven, Miss., ARI officials announced late last week. The $7 million facility will complement the activities of the company's plant in Bude, Miss., and will perform light maintenance activities, such as cleaning and simple repairs for up to 100 cars at a time. The facility is designed to provide "quick turn" light repair capabilities, ARI officials said.

Bombardier Transportation has signed a $440 million variation order to develop and supply components for the next generation ICx high-speed trains for Deutsche Bahn (DB) in Germany under a framework agreement reached with Siemens AG in May 2011. DB recently expanded its original order by an additional 170 coaches.

A consortium of Ansaldo STS and Cofely Ineo has obtained a $156 million contract to design and supply a signaling, telecommunications and control traffic center for a future high-speed line that will connect the cities of Tangiers and Kenitra in Morocco.

Thales UK and Prospects College, a technical and vocational group training provider, has established a new apprenticeship plan to recruit and train the next generation of rail engineers. Apprentices will be trained to work on signaling and communications installation, testing and commissioning, and ongoing maintenance services, according to a Thales press release.

Hugh Fuller has been named a senior engineering manager in the Transit and Rail Technical Excellence Center of Parsons Brinckerhoff. Based in the Seattle office, Fuller will be responsible for managing the track design for passenger- and freight-rail projects, primarily in the Pacific Northwest. He has 36 years of experience in passenger- and freight-rail planning and design. Parsons Brinckerhoff also announced Ioannis Tassoulas has been named a supervising engineering in the Austin, Texas, office, where he will manage the design of various infrastructure improvement projects throughout Texas. Tassoulas has experience in the design and management of a wide range of transportation projects.