Supplier Spotlight (March 2007)

• Alstom Transport obtained a contract to supply 51 double-deck Coradia Duplex trains for France’s SNCF. In addition, private freight operator Veolia Cargo exercised an option to purchase another 10 Prima electric locomotives from Alstom.
• Bombardier Transportation obtained a $178 million contract to supply 140 passenger coaches for the Swiss Federal Railways, and a $43 million order from Romania’s Metrorex SA for six MOVIA trains.
• Union Switch & Signal Inc. obtained two contracts from Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari S.p.A. to supply automatic train-control systems for Greece’s Thessaloniki Metro and Milan Metro’s Line 5.
• The Timken Co. obtained an order to supply, replace and repair tapered bearings for German railway supplier ELH Eisenbahnlaufwerke Halle GmbH & Co. KG.
• Dutch construction and maintenance firm BAM Rail bv purchased ROBEL Bahnbaumaschinen GmbH’s Mobile Maintenance Unit 69.50, a track maintenance machine.

Facilities

• Griffin Wheel Co. has completed $20 million worth of improvements at its Kansas City, Kan., facility to increase cast-steel wheel production capacity.
• Wireless communications product distributor Hutton Communications Inc. opened a 55,000-square-foot warehouse near Los Angeles.
• International Paint L.L.C. opened a 20,000-square-foot distribution center in St. Louis.

Operations management

• RailComm Inc. added a Domain Operations Controller (DOC®) system to two additional crossovers at BNSF Railway Co.’s Tulsa, Okla., yard.
• Stratus Technologies Inc., Railware Inc. and VMware developed a “virtualized” operations management application for the Kansas City Terminal Railway. The traffic management and control system features a Stratus® ftServer® 4300.

Safety and security

• Railhead Vision Systems obtained a contract from the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corp. (Metra) to supply more than 500 onboard video surveillance systems.

Acquisition action

• MRI, which owns damage-prevention product supplier ShockWatch^®, acquired IntroTech Inc., a manufacturer of chemical-based sensors that monitor goods’ temperature in transit and storage.
• International rail consultant Interfleet Technology Inc. acquired Canada’s LDK Engineering Inc.

Meeting their standards

• Railinc has completed a Statement on Auditing Standards 70 Type II examination, which includes a detailed testing of Railinc’s internal controls to demonstrate they are operating effectively.