Rail supplier news from Rail Vision, Hitachi, Ricardo, Amsted, Intramotev and Nokia (May 11)

Rail Vision announced it has entered into an agreement with shareholder Knorr-Bremse Rail Vehicle Systems to sell 3,947,368 shares and/or pre-funded warrants worth $6 million in a registered direct offering. Under a separate private placement agreement, the company will issue the same number of warrants to Knorr-Bremse at an exercise price of 84 cents per share. The private placement warrants will have a five-year term. The transactions are expected to close today with Aegis Capital Corp. acting as the exclusive placement agent.

Hitachi Rail STS Canada appointed Ricardo to provide independent safety assessment support for the build and launch of services on the CA$9 billion Ontario Line. Hitachi Rail is part of the Connect 6ix group that obtained the contract to deliver the line's rolling stock, systems, operations and maintenance services for the new route. Ricardo will ensure safety requirements in the build and launch have been identified and addressed through to the line's planned completion in 2031. Ricardo will submit detailed reports and audits to line operator Metrolinx during each phase of the project.

Amsted Digital Solutions and Ermewa SA announced the deployment of Load Status in Motion (LSiM), a technology that provides insights into rail-car usage, such as load status, according to a press release. LSiM calculates cumulative loaded and empty mileage and measures the number of cycles a rail car experiences when empty compared to when loaded. LSiM requires no additional wireless sensors because it has an onboard gateway with integrated sensors that can process various frequencies and inputs with 98% reliability. The product was developed through machine learning and artificial intelligence and will be deployed across all Amsted Digital devices.

Intramotev received a $200,000 grant from the Michigan Office of Future Mobility and Electrification to deploy three TugVolt self-propelled rail cars at a mining site in the Upper Peninsula later this year. The TugVolt is a proprietary kit that can retrofit/upfit existing rail cars to become battery electric, move independently like a truck and decouple to service first- and last-mile needs. The investment will be the first deployment of a self-propelled, battery-electric rail car for commercial use in freight-rail operations, according to a company press release.

A survey by Nokia Corp. and International Data Corp. found that the International Union of Railways' Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) is being integrated into existing rail operations globally to help automate processes, increase returns on investment and optimize productivity, according to a press release. About 91% of respondents said that the Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway (GSM-R), which will become redundant in 2030, is the primary communication technology for their operations. Nearly 80% of railroads are piloting and planning implementation of FRMCS.