Rail supplier news from Rockwell Collins, Harsco, Trinity and Alstom (June 6)

Rockwell Collins has launched ARINC RailwayNet, a hosted network and messaging platform for passenger and freight railroads. The new solution is designed to increase safety and reliability in the rail industry and to help railroads meet positive train control (PTC) requirements. Built on the company's mission-critical infrastructure used by aviation customers for more than 80 years, ARINC RailwayNet aims to address the technical challenges of PTC adoption by offering a hosted service to short-line, regional and commuter railroads in North America, company officials said in a press release. Rockwell Collins also announced that it has received a $4.9 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to help implement the new system. The grant is being used to provide technical support to participating short lines and commuter railroads that need assistance implementing the office and networking segments of a PTC system, company officials said.

Harsco Corp. announced that its Protran Technology unit has formed a marketing alliance with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to introduced unmanned vehicle technology to traditional rail safety and security operations. Part of the "Instrumented Rail inspection System" (IRiS), the vehicles can be operated from a portable base station that provides a single interface for reviewing telemetry. As a result, security inspection and first-response work can be done robotically without risk of injuries or fatalities, Harsco officials said in a press release. Additionally, the unmanned vehicles are designed to accommodate a range of optional sensors that can expand their capabilities to include chemical, radiation or optical detection. IRiS is the result of an extensive technology development effort at Johns Hopkins, Harsco officials said. The university's effort was funded by the Transportation Security Administration.

Trinity Industries Inc. named W. Relle Howard vice president and chief information officer. Howard, who joined the company in February, previously served as vice president of information technology at Flowserve Corp. and manufacturing information technology director for Celanese Chemicals. Trinity also hired Brian Madison as president of Trinity Industries Leasing Co. He previously served as executive vice president at Key Equipment Finance, where he oversaw manufacturer and vendor alliances across information technology, health care, government, industrial and water and clean energy markets. Meanwhile, Trinity promoted Bryan Stevenson to vice president, associate general counsel and secretary. He joined the company in 2015.

Olivier Baril, sourcing vice president at Alstom, has been named chairman of Railsponsible, a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting responsible business practices. He succeeds Jeroen Wegkamp as chairman. Wegkamp is chief purchase officer at Dutch Railways. Railsponsible was launched in 2015 and is formed by seven companies: Alstom, Bombardier Transportation, SNCF, Deutsche Bahn, Knorr Remse, Nederlandse Spoorwegen and SKF.