Rail supplier news from Sasser, Littlepay and Alstom (Sept. 7)

Sasser Family Cos. has finalized an agreement to acquire Singapore-based global container lessor Falcon Lease Holdings Pte Ltd and its group of companies. The acquisition expands Sasser's transportation asset leasing and management services to include global tank container leasing and brings its total operating subsidiary companies to seven. “Acquiring Falcon Lease … allows us to serve a new customer base across Asia Pacific, Europe, North, Central and South America and enables us to bring our experience to bulk oceangoing container leasing,” said Sasser Chief Executive Officer Jeff Walsh in a news release.

Littlepay has been named transit payment processor for a contactless ticketing demonstration on Sacramento Regional Transit District’s (SacRT) light-rail network. The rollout, in collaboration with the California Integrated Travel Project, began on the Green Line in late June and has now been extended across all light rail trains. SacRT is the first transit agency in California to offer open-loop contactless payment options on a light rail system, Littlepay officials said in a press release.

Alstom's battery-powered train conducted a technical demonstration journey starting in Chemnitz, Germany. During the journey, the train’s drive was switched from catenary operation to battery power, underlining Alstom’s technological leadership in ecofriendly alternative drive systems for the rail industry. Meanwhile, Alstom's Coradia iLint train, the first in the world to be powered by hydrogen, took its first turns in France on the tracks of the Centre d'Essais Ferroviaires in the north of France.