Rail supplier updates from Trinity, ShipXpress, Alstom and Bombardier (Oct. 14)

Trinity Industries Inc. announced the extension of its strategic rail-car alliance with Element Financial Corp., in which Element is expected to acquire up to an additional $1 billion of leased rail cars during the period of 2016 through 2019. The portfolio is expected to consist of new cars from Trinity's leased rail-car backlog, as well as existing leased cars from Trinity Industries Leasing Co.'s (TILC) fleet. The portfolio also may include secondary market purchases of leased rail cars identified by Trinity and Element. TILC will continue to act as the exclusive servicer for leased cars purchased by Element under the alliance, maintain its relationship with individual lessees, and receive management fees accordingly, Trinity officials said in a news release.

Morristown & Erie Railway (M&E) chose ShipXpress Inc.'s RailSync® product suite to manage railway logistics. The software is aimed at enabling real-time access of operational and revenue information across all properties owned by the railroad. The product provides a better view of trips, data, and daily operating processes to operations managers, train crews, and customers, ShipXpress officials said in a press release.

Alstom has been awarded a contract by Morroco's Casa Transport to provide 50 Citadis trams for a new section of Casablanca's tramway line that is expected to open in late 2018. The contract is worth $114 million. Ridership along the existing tramway line has increased by more than 30 percent over the last couple of years, Alstom officials said in a press release. To address the increase in demand, Casa Transport decided to add 13.7 miles of tramway line and order new trams from Alstom, which had previously supplied 74 Citadis trams.

Bombardier Transportation's Russian signaling joint venture has equipped the 150th station on the Russian Railway's network with the Bombardier EBI Lock 950 Computer-Based Interlocking system. The system began commercial operation on Oct. 10 at the Onokhoy Station on the East-Siberian branch of the railroad.