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• Bombardier Transportation Chinese joint venture Bombardier Sifang Transportation Ltd. has been awarded a variation contract by the Chinese Ministry of Railways (MOR) for high-speed trains. The MOR changed its original order of 80 high-speed-trains in 2009 to include 70 eight-car Bombardier Zefiro 380 trains, 46 Zefiro 250 stainless-steel trains and 60 Zefiro 250 NG trains. The 70 Zefiro 380 trains are designed to operate at speeds up to 235 mph, according to a Bombardier press release.

• Ansaldo STS has named Christian Andi chief financial officer and director in charge of preparing the company’s financial accounts. He succeeds Alberto Milvio. Previously at the company, Andi served as vice president of internal audit, VP of process and quality and systems, and, most recently, senior VP of standard processes, quality and IT services.

• Thales has obtained a $41 million contract from Norwegian rail administration Jernbaneverket (JBV) to provide a new interlocking system. The first three projects for new signaling systems include the Sandnes-Stavanger line, the Ganddal cargo terminal and Hovik Station. The 10-year pact includes an additional contact for support services over 25 years, according to a Thales release. The company also announced it was selected by Malaysian mechanical and engineering company George Kent Berhard (GKM) to supply a SelTrac communications-based train control system for the existing Ampang Line, plus a southwest extension.

• EI Systems has been selected to supply, install, configure and support a railway management system at the Port of Montreal using its web-based Rail Manager® and Rail Logger® products. The system is designed to track car inventory, status and movements across the port’s 60 miles of track. The system also will monitor cars moving in and out of a dozen privately operated customer facilities, and provide rail yard inventory management and control, according to a EI Systems press release. The project will use enhanced electronic data gathering to improve data accuracy and accelerate data collection, with built-in interfaces to multiple rail-car AEI readers and to electronic records from the serving railroads and on-site shippers, EI Systems officials said.

• The Transportation Marketing and Sales Association recently named Eric Chambers, senior vice president of BlueGrace Logistics, as the Transportation Sales Executive of the Year; and Patrick O’Neil, Railinc Corp.’s director of corporate communications, the Transportation Marketing Executive of the Year.