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• Ansaldo STS obtained a $131 million contract to automate most of Rio Tinto’s 800-mile iron-ore railway in western Australia’s Pilbara region.  The Automatic Train Operation project calls for upgrading wayside signaling and asset-protection equipment, installing a wide-area data network communications system, developing interface software for locomotive control and driving systems, installing upgraded onboard locomotive equipment and modifying a train control facility to incorporate automatic train operation.

• Bombardier Transportation won a $203 million order from French railway SNCF’s transport and logistics branch for 80 interoperable diesel-electric locomotives. The contract’s initial firm order calls for 45 BOMBARDIER TRAXX F140 DE locomotives. Delivery is scheduled to conclude in May 2010. TRAXX locomotives are designed to transport goods as well as passengers on national and international routes.

• Railpower Technologies Corp. announced Chief Financial Officer Lorraine Potvin has resigned, effective Jan. 1, to pursue other interests. The company appointed Controller and Director of Finance Pierre Labelle as interim CFO. Prior to joining Railpower, Labelle was financial controller of an Alstom Transport Canadian subsidiary.

• For the next two years, Vossloh AG expects to boost rail-related sales. The company’s Rail Infrastructure/Fastening Systems unit will generate more sales because of further rail expansions in China, Russia and the United States, and replacement needs in Europe. Sales for the Switch Systems unit will be driven by ongoing robust demand throughout all markets, and especially in Scandinavia, southern Europe, North Africa and the United States. Meanwhile, the Motive Power & Components/Locomotives unit will capitalize on growing electrical system orders in Europe, Vossloh said. The company also plans to modernize and expand plants, and introduce new products, including ones involving locomotives.

• Bernie Frist, a principal in ARCADIS’ global management advisory services group, has been chosen as a board member of Valley Forward Association, a Phoenix-area public interest group that advocates a balance between economic development and environmental quality. Frist, who also will serve as vice chairman of the association’s energy committee, joined ARCADIS in 2006 as business development manager for the Arizona area.