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Rail News Home Passenger Rail

11/8/2010



Rail News: Passenger Rail

Updates from Wabtec, Portec Rail, Gannett Fleming, Parsons Brinckerhoff and MERMEC Group


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• Today, Wabtec Corp. announced it acquired substantially all the assets of Swiger Coil Systems, which manufactures traction motors and electric coils for passenger-rail cars and locomotives, as well as for the power-generation market. Founded in 1975, Swiger Coil also serves the original equipment market and aftermarket in the United States and abroad. The transaction “expands our product line in the transit market, with components primarily related to vehicle propulsion,” said Wabtec President and Chief Executive Officer Albert Neupaver in a prepared statement.

• Last week, Portec Rail Products Inc. reported net sales of $27.9 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, a 14.9 percent increase compared with the same 2009 period. The company also recorded unaudited net income of $1.2 million, down 38.7 percent. Why the decline? The results include expenses related to Portec's proposed merger with L.B. Foster Co. "Certain market sectors continue to show positive signs for increased rail-car loadings and infrastructure investment," said Portec President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Jarosinski in a prepared statement. "Our financial performance this year, combined with our record backlog at the end of the third quarter, are signs of continued investment in the rail transportation industry, which we believe will be able to support a rebounding economy over time."

• David Boaté recently joined Gannett Fleming as vice president and director of transit and rail for the Northeast Region. He'll be based in the firm's New York City office. Boaté has more than 25 years of engineering and "leadership" experience, most recently as the director of "major" capital transit projects for engineering/consulting firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., according to a prepared statement.

• Anthony DeJohn was named area manager for Parsons Brinckerhoff's (PB) Princeton, N.J., office. He'll be responsible for managing PB's operations throughout central and southern New Jersey. A vice president with PB, DeJohn has served the firm for 18 years, most recently as manager of environmental and planning for the Northeast Region.

• MERMEC Group announced that WestNet Rail, which operates and maintains a 3,224-mile freight-rail network in western Australia, is using the company's Railway Asset Management and Decision Support Solution (RAMSYS) for the "implementation as its Perway Information Management System (PIMS)," according to a prepared statement. Last year, MERMEC Group "successfully piloted" PIMS on a section of the WestNet Rail network, and now is continuing with "full implementation," the company said.