Rail supplier news from ShipXpress, Lilee, SmartDrive and Bombardier (June 23)

ShipXpress Inc. announced that the following railroads have chosen the company's RailSync® product suite to manage railway logisitics: Sidney & Lowe Railroad Inc., Belvidere & Delaware River Railway Co., Black River and Western Railroad, and Huntsville & Madison County Railroad Authority. Designed to address the requirements of short-line and regional railroads, the product suite is a transportation management system that monitors local and interline rail activity while providing control over customer service administration and management of several key railroad functions, according to ShipXpress. RailSync is a software-as-a-service platform system which has an accompanying mobile application.

Lilee Systems has announced the availability of its systems management suite in the cloud. The software was designed to manage wayside, locomotive, base station and back office assets, including wayside interface units and 220 MHz radios. Lilee's systems management suite interoperates with the company's communications management unit family of products for ACSES positive train control deployments. Third-party devices can be integrated into the suite using the company's software management agents. Meanwhile, Lilee also announced two new products within its mobile connectivity software and hardware portfolio: the TransAir™ Gigabit Ethernet Switch with Power over Ethernet Smart Module and the virtual Lilee Mobility Controller. The first product simplifies the deployment of devices with power requirements, such as surveillance cameras and wireless access points, according to a company press release. The switch provides rail-certified high-speed switching and routing of machine-to-machine communications for mobile computing and industrial connectivity, while the controller provides secure and reliable connectivity between high value remote mobile or fixed assets and the back office.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has selected SmartDrive Systems to roll out its video-based solutions across 315 rail cars and 2,350 buses. The agency's bus fleet has been using SmartDrive since 2009, but the new five-year contract expands deployment of the technology to L.A. Metro's light- and heavy-rail systems. SmartDrive's rail platform was modified from the one used by L.A. Metro's bus fleet with additional hardware and cabling that comply with rail regulatory requirements. The deployment is expected to grow from the initial 315 rail cars to more than 560 over the next five years. In addition to capturing collisions and near collisions, SmartDrive Rail captures high-risk operations including passing "red-over-red" and bar signals, overspeed and improper stops at stations.

European rolling stock leasing company Akiem and Bombardier Transportation have signed a framework agreement for 52 Bombardier TRAXX AC and MS locomotives. The first batch of 26 locomotives ordered is valued at a list price of about $107 million, with delivery scheduled to take place in 2017. The TRAXX locomotives supplied will be configured for use in 13 countries and will comply with the latest European standards including European Train Control System Baseline 3.

Bombardier Inc. has appointed Mike Nadolski as vice president, communications and public affairs. Reporting directly to Chief Executive Officer Alain Bellemare, Nadolski will be responsible for leading the company's internal and external communications activities, including media relations and employee communications.