Rail supplier news from Duos, Alstom, Wabtec and Ayers Electronic (Nov. 8)

Duos Technologies Inc. has been awarded a $1.8 million contract to install its Rail Inspection Portal (rip®) on a North American Class I. Installation of rip is expected to be complete by the end of year, company officials said in a press release. The award includes a contract for technical support as well as the development and maintenance of a significant library of artificial intelligence algorithms with the objective of automating certain aspects of the mechanical inspection process. 

Alstom announced that between April 1 and Sept. 30, the company booked nearly $5.1 billion in orders leading to a record backlog of nearly $46 billion. Sales in the period reached $4.5 billion, a 3 percent increase from the same period in 2018, and net income from continued operations and group share amounted to $235 million, according to Alstom’s posted financial results.

Wabtec Corp. reported third-quarter net income of $90.6 million, compared with $86 million in Q3 2018. The company logged an earnings per diluted share of 48 cents and adjusted earnings per diluted share of $1.03. Income from operations was $169 million in the quarter, compared with $125.2 million in the same quarter in 2018. Adjusted income from operations was $317 million, which was favorably impacted by original equipment mix, timing of policy harmonization and seasonality in the locomotive services, Wabtec officials said in a press release. “We delivered a solid operational performance in the third quarter and we remain on track to achieve our full year adjusted earnings and cash flow guidance, despite challenging conditions in the North American freight market,” said Rafael Santana, Wabtec’s president and chief executive officer.

The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association has added Ayers Electronic Systems LLC (aE) as a preferred provider in its member discount program. As part of the program, aE will provide short lines with management solutions for implementing positive train control (PTC) at a “reasonable” price for small business railroad members. The solution includes selection of PTC services, procurement, training, testing and implementation coordination.