Rail supplier news from NRC, Greenbrier, MUL Railcars and Alstom (Dec. 2)

The National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) announced yesterday that Chase Armstrong, R.J. Corman vice president of commercial development, and Bob Hirte, Hamilton Construction’s director of railroad development, have been elected NRC board members. They will begin their three-year terms on Jan. 1, 2022. Earlier this year, Progressive Railroading named Armstrong a "Rising Star" of the railroad industry. He and Hirte will join six current NRC board members who have been reelected to new terms: John Daloisio of Railroad Construction Co.; Allen Branham of B4 Solutions LLC; Erika Bruhnke of RailPros; Russ Gehl of CWR Transportation; Kevin Hicks of TranSystems; and Brett Urquhart of Vossloh North American.

The Greenbrier Cos. Inc. received new orders for 6,200 units valued at $670 million during the first fiscal quarter that began Sept. 1, 2021. The rail-car orders are from a diverse mix of customers and comprise a broad range of car types, including intermodal, box cars, gondolas, tank cars, covered hoppers and automobile-carrying cars. In addition to the new orders, Greenbrier received orders to rebody 1,400 cars as part of its rail-car conversion program.

MUL Railcars Inc., a full-service rail-car leasing, maintenance and management company, has changed its trade name to PNW Railcars Inc. The name change follows the merger in April of Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Co. Ltd. (MUL) and Hitachi Capital Corp., which formed Mitsubishi HC Capital Inc.

Alstom has agreed to transfer business activities related to Bombardier Transportation's contribution to the V300 Zefiro very high-speed train to Hitachi Rail. The transaction is part of Alstom's commitments to the European Commission in relation to its acquisition of Bombardier Transportation with reference to the V300 Zefiro. Alstom yesterday finally discharged its divestment obligations as required by the commission's clearance decision, according to an Alstom press release.