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Last week, Alstom and AO Locomotive, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), signed a $129.7 million contract for the full maintenance, major overhaul and modernization of 27 passenger locomotives over the next 25 years. Also last week, Alstom Transport President Henri Poupart-Lafarge unveiled the first electric freight locomotive for the Kazakh Railways. The unit is the first of 295 locomotives (200 freight and 95 passenger) KTZ ordered from Alstom and its Russian partner, TMH, in 2010, according to a company press release.

Yesterday, at a ceremony at its Vienna, Austria, plant, Siemens Rail Systems presented to Munich City Utilities (SWM) the first painted carbody of new metro trains ordered for the Munich transit company, MVG, as part an order for 21 C2-type, six-car permanently coupled trains. Also, SWM/MVG received two options for an additional 23 trains, bringing the total to 276 cars worth $713.4 million. The trains are being built at Siemens plants in Vienna and Munich-Allach, Germany.

Bombardier Transportation received the Manufacturer of the Year award at the 2012 Light Rail Awards held Oct. 3 in London. This was the third consecutive year that the company has received the award, according to a Bombardier press release. The company also was honored as "highly commended" in the Supplier of the Year category.

ALLTRANSTEK L.L.C. has named David Ronzani director of rail-car regulatory support and compliance. Most recently, he served as director of quality assurance for Union Tank Car Co., where he oversaw the nondestructive testing, welding, quality assurance and regulatory compliance programs for the repair business unit. Ronzani has more than 25 years of rail-car experience, including quality assurance and inspection assignments in tank car manufacturing and repair. He also served quality assurance stints in the pressure vessel, oil field equipment and locomotive manufacturing sectors. Currently, he is the chairman of the Association of America Railroads' Task Force on Nondestructive Testing.

Ken Cox  has been promoted to AVP of operations at National Railway Equipment Co. (NREC). Most recently, Cox was director of production engineering. With more than 20 years of experience in the railroad industry, he will oversee North American operations for NREC's new/remanufactured locomotives and new/remanufactured components services. He will report to NREC Vice President of Operations Ray Thornston. Also, NREC recently recognized its Milwaukee wheel shop division's three-year, no-lost-time safety achievement.

Enrique Bertolino has been named to represent Sygnet Rail Technologies' products in South America. He will be based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He recently retired from Cummins, Argentina, where he was the sales lead and representative for Uruguay and Paraguay. He also held positions representing Cummins in Brazil and South American countries. At Cummins, Bertolino was instrumental in the growth of high-speed engine placement in rail products across Latin America, according to a Sygnet Rail press release. He led an effort in Brazil with CPTM EIF to secure the city of Sao Paulo's recent order of four locomotives featuring Cummins 50 liter diesel engines.

Railroad industry veteran Frank Wilkinson died on Oct. 6. He was 63. Wilkinson's railroad career started in the 1970s with Industrial Track, and continued for more than 40 years at companies such as Pohl Corp., Atlantic Track & Turnout Co. and American Rail Marketing L.L.C. He is survived by his wife, Kathy, and a stepson.