Rail supplier news from Miner, Bombardier, Alstom, Keolis, Timken, Ansaldo STS and Midland (June 13)

Miner Enterprises Inc. announced a Class I has selected its five-foot manual AggreGate® outlets for 54 new ballast cars being built by FreightCar America Inc. The Miner AggreGate ballast gates are designed to distribute ballast on either side of the rails and can be used in conjunction with a solar-powered system operated via radio control, according to a company press release.

Bombardier Transportation has added a new European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) Level 2 high-speed reference to its portfolio with the award of the High Speed North-North West Corridor rail signaling upgrade contract in Spain. The project, which includes the lines Valladolid-Leon and Venta de Banos-Burgos, is being delivered by a consortium led by Alstom that includes Bombardier and Indra. The order, awarded by Spain's Administrator of Railway Infrastructure, has a total value $459 million, with Bombardier's share valued at $195 million, according to a press release.

Alstom will supply 15 Citadis Dualis for the Ile-de-France region after SNCF exercised an option on behalf of STIF. The order is valued at $108.4 million. Delivery is scheduled in summer 2016 for an expected commercial operation in July 2017.

Keolis Commuter Services has appointed Pascal Baran chief engineer for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter-rail contract that will begin July 1. He comes to Keolis Commuter Services, a part of Keolis North America, after 18 years with SNCF, France’s national railway company. At SNCF, he held positions in project engineering, safety and systems, maintenance, infrastructure and contracting. Baran previously was a project engineer at Alcatel Lucent.

The Timken Co. has redesigned its engineering, product management and business systems teams. The company is committing $60 million to its DeltaX initiative, a multi-year investment designed to improve concept-to-commercialization efforts. The three product growth streams and the respective product line executives at the heart of the DeltaX Initiative are: tapered roller bearings led by Douglas Smith; industrial bearings led by Amanda Montgomery; and power transmission and engineering systems led by Hans Landin. Stephen Johnson will drive research and development.

Ansaldo STS and United Mechanical and Electrical Co. Ltd. have signed an agreement to execute four projects (Line 4 Hangzhou, Dalian extension lines 1-2, Shenyang Line 1, Xi 'n Line 2) concerning the implementation of communications-based train control systems in China. The contract is valued at about $50 million.

Midland Manufacturing, a division of OPW, will now offer repair services of rail-car valves in addition to its valve remanufacturing and repair program. Standard repair services of general and pressure railcar valves will include testing, cleaning, data collection, and assembling and final testing, according to a company press release.