Rail supplier news from Alstom, Thales, Siemens Rail, Ansaldo, Protran, BenchMark, Schneider and WAGO (April 29)

Alstom announced that its joint venture Gibela and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa closed on a $5.5 billion contract for the supply of 600 X'Ttrapolis Mega commuter trains, or 3,600 cars, over 10 years. The project is the largest in Alstom's history, company officials said in a press release. The contract includes construction of a local manufacturing plant in Dunnottar. In addition, Gibela will provide technical support and spare parts over 18 years.

A Thales and Siemens Rail Automation joint venture has been awarded a $74.6 million contract by Adif for the installation of signaling, traffic control, ERMTS automatic train protection, communications and video surveillance technologies along the Pajares Diversion rail route for a high-speed rail project in Spain. The two companies also will maintain the installations for a year, with the possibility of a one-year extension.

West Virginia University selected Thales to modernize the transportation systems of the personal rapid transit network on campus in Morgantown. The contract calls for Thales to supply a turnkey transport systems solution. The PRT Train Control and Upgraded Fare Collection Systems will replace the existing systems, which have been operational since 1975.

Ansaldo STS awarded Protran Technology L.L.C. a contract to install the Protracker Roadway Worker Protection System (RWPS) on more than 500 rail cars. Protran's RWPS can be integrated with positive train control (PTC) to help meet the obligation of the Rail Safety Improvement Act, which requires PTC to prevent injuries to workers as the result of unauthorized incursions by a train into a work zone, according to a Protran press release.

BenchMark Energy Corp., a refiner and supplier of Glycerin for commercial processes, announced it's one of the first customers to utilize Schneider's new bulk intermodal service into Mexico. "The combination of trucking and rail service has proved to be a very effective solution for our transportation needs," said Benchmark CEO Mark Bateman in a press release.

WAGO Corp. named Kevin Stevenson regional sales manager for eastern Houston and Carly Groshans, regional sales manager for southwest Houston. Stevenson has served more than 22 years as an automation specialist for PLCs, drives, HMI systems and communication systems for Wildcat Electric. He also was a project manager at Applied Control Engineering, where he led automation projects, conducted field work and did troubleshooting for control systems. Prior to joining WAGO, Groshans was a project engineer and sales engineer at Pentair Thermal Management and AWC Inc.