Rail supplier news from Easy Aerial, VTG, Thales and HNTB (March 24)

Easy Aerial Inc. has appointed Timothy Tenne as chief operating officer. He will oversee the global day-to-day operations of the company's offices. Easy Aerial provides autonomous drone-in-box-based inspection, monitoring and surveillance solutions. Tenne has more than 30 years of senior management experience in the military, public and private multimode transportation sectors. He is former senior director of standardization, compliance, regulatory affairs and simulation at Amtrak, where he was instrumental in developing the railroad's first drone program, Easy Aerial officials said in a press release.

Siemens Mobility GmbH and VTG Rail Europe GmbH signed a contract to test the brake monitoring system (BMS) for automated brake testing of freight trains to prove the system's operational capability, according to a VTG press release. The BMS ensures an automatic brake test on each rail-car side of a train. The system provides train staff with status data visible on each side of the rail car, as well as automated reporting of complete rail-car status and live updates of all rail car settings on a display in the locomotive.

Thales has launched SelTrac™ Generation 8, the latest evolution of the company's communications-based train control (CBTC) solution for urban, metro and light-rail networks. The newest features include a new digital architecture, with enhanced services and autonomy capabilities.

HNTB has named Diana Mendes, corporate president of infrastructure and mobility equity, a new position responsible for shaping transportation and mobility equity policy through collaboration with federal, state and local agency leaders. Mendes has 35 years of experience in the industry, including five with HNTB. As an HNTB fellow, she most recently as the firm's Mid-Atlantic division president. Prior to that, she served as the firm's transit and rail market sector leader.