Rail supplier news from ShipXpress, First State, Greenbrier, HNTB and Shannon & Wilson (Jan. 12)

Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad Co. has chosen ShipXpress Inc.'s RailSync product suite to manage railway logistics. The software helps crews monitor local and interline rail activity while providing control over customer service administration and management of several key railroad functionalities, ShipXpress officials said in a press release. Designed to address the requirements of short-line and regional railroads, RailSync also has an accompanying mobile application called Mobile Command.

First State Manufacturing has been awarded a new multi-year contract with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to provide cut and sew services for their rail-car seating. This is part of the department's initiative to improve customer experience on daily passenger trains that serve nine cities between Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., company officials said in a press release. First State has hired eight new employees to meet the increased demand, local media reported.

For its first fiscal quarter ended Nov. 30, 2015, the Greenbrier Cos. Inc. reported record net earnings of $64.9 million, or $2.15 per diluted share. The company also logged a new record revenue of $802.4 million for the quarter. Greenbrier's new rail-car backlog at the end of the quarter was 36,000 units with an estimated value of $4.14 billion. The company's most recent results mark the fourth consecutive quarter that it has logged new records, said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William Furman in a press release. Greenbrier anticipates that order and backlog levels will likely come down from their elevated energy-driven peak, but Furman said there will be continued demand for a range of non-energy related rail cars, including automotive carrying units and large cube covered hoppers.

HNTB Corp. has promoted Michael Sweeney to president of the firm's Northeast Division. Based in New York City, he'll oversee 850 employees in 13 locations across 10 states. Sweeney has served as the firm's New York office leader and senior five president since 2013. Before joining HNTB, he served in leadership roles on regional and national transit programs for two other major consulting firms. He is a member of the American Public Transportation Association, the Women's Transportation Seminar, the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association and the Metropolitan Railway Association.

Shannon & Wilson Inc. has hired Axel Nitschke as director of operations for underground services. He'll work out of the firm's office in Washington, D.C., and will focus on growing the company's underground practice in new geographic markets and for new clients. A 20-year veteran of the underground services industry, Nitschke has worked on road, rail and utility tunnel projects for infrastructure and mining clients in both urban and remote areas throughout North America, South America and Europe.