Supplier Spotlight (December 2007)

M&A

• Global Railway Industries Ltd. reached an agreement to acquire “substantially all of the net working capital, land, building, plant equipment, machinery and other intangible assets” of Canada Allied Diesel Co. Ltd. and its affiliated companies.
• Mississippi Railcar L.L.C. purchased Custom Rail Car L.L.C.’s rail-car repair and maintenance operations.
• HDR Engineering Inc. acquired real estate and right-of-way consulting firm PHAROS Corp.

Partnerships

• Alstom and Balfour Beatty partnered to create Signaling Solutions Ltd, which offers signal system planning, design, product supply, installation, testing and commissioning services.
• Mississippi Railcar obtained a long-term contract with Chicago Freight Car Leasing Co. to serve as the firm’s preferred rail-car maintenance service provider.
• Standard Car Truck Co. and China’s Tianrui Group formed a joint venture to globally market rolling stock cast steel wheels.
• SKF and Knorr-Bremse teamed up to provide condition-monitoring functions for brake-control systems.

New transit lines

• Joint venture partners Twin Mountain-Herzog and HNTB Corp. obtained a design-build contract from the New Mexico Department of Transportation for the second phase of the Rail Runner Express commuter-rail line.
• Alstom obtained a contract to design, manufacture, operate and maintain a 124-mile “very high speed” line in Morocco.

MOW

• RAIL.ONE GmbH won contracts to provide trackwork supervisory services, and supply and install concrete ties for a South Korean high-speed passenger railway; and deliver 150,000 concrete bi-block ties for the Seoul-to-Busan high-speed line.
• TieTek L.L.C. obtained a contract to supply 63,000 composite ties to the Chicago Transit Authority.

Search team

• Former transit agency CEOs Tony Kouneski and Jack Leary have formed KL Executive Search L.L.C., which will specialize in placing management and technical personnel in the public transportation industry.

China market

• Knorr-Bremse Rail Vehicle Systems launched operations at a new plant in Suzhou, China.
• HLS Systems International Ltd. obtained a $23.8 million contract to provide automation systems for a subway expansion in Shenzhen, China.
• Bombardier Sifang Power Transportation Ltd. obtained a $1.5 billion contract to supply 40 16-car high-speed trainsets to China’s Ministry of Railways.

C&S

• RailComm Inc. obtained contracts to provide its Domain Operations Controller (DOC^®) system for Austin, Texas’ Capital Metro and the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District’s Michigan City, Ind., dispatching facility. The firm also will add track protection and power switch automation capabilities to its DOC^® system for BNSF Railway Co.’s Havre Terminal in Montana.

Rolling stock report

• Bombardier Transportation and local partner Hartasuma Sdn Bhd obtained a $100 million order for 52 additional Advanced Rapid Transit MK II cars from Malaysia’s Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad.
• Alstom obtained a $316.7 million contract to supply 30 commuter trains to Spain’s RENFE.
• Siemens Transportation Systems Group obtained a $153 million contract to supply 25 heavy-haul electric locomotives for Australia’s Queensland Rail.
• Siemens Canada Limited - Transportation Systems recently introduced the Combino Plus environmentally friendly light-rail vehicle.

Security

• Duos Technologies Inc. obtained a more than $600,000 contract from “one of the nation’s leading rail transportation companies” to implement an intelligent video security solution at a rail yard in the U.S. Northeast Corridor, according to a press release.

Stuff at Stucki, Kelso

• A. Stucki Co. created new chemical and mechanical engineer positions within its engineering department. The firm also launched an updated Web site that features improved navigation, layout, organization and functionality, according to the company.
• Kelso Technologies Inc. signed an agreement with Mexico City’s Bufete Jurídico Guadarrama y Asociados S.C., which will help Kelso promote its products and develop business partnerships in Central and South America.

Facility

• Brookville Equipment Corp. completed a 24,000-square-foot expansion at its locomotive manufacturing facility.