Rail supplier updates from RTR Technologies, RailComm, Bombardier, Maintenance Design Group and Wabtec (April 24)

RTR Technologies Inc. was awarded a $6.5 million contract to modernize control systems and data telemetry for contact rail heat and switch heaters throughout the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) network, the company announced earlier this week. Expected to be completed in late 2016, the work is aimed at reducing MBTA's energy consumption and improving cold-weather service and safety.

RailComm late last week announced the completion of a Shove Track Protection System at a private coal mining facility in Alabama. The company provided indication and detection subsystems, in addition to wireless communications for those systems. The Shove Track Protection System is designed to more efficiently shove cars without multiple workers spotting the operation from the end of the track, RailComm officials said. 

Bombardier, working in consortium with Krakowskie Zaklady Automatyki S.A, has been awarded a $56 million contract to provide rail signaling on a line section between Rawicz and Czempin, Poland. Slated for completion in June 2020, the work is the third and final signaling project on the line from Wroclaw to Poznan, Poland, Bombardier officials said.

Maintenance Design Group has named Ed Kane operations manager in the firm's Denver office. Kane has more than 20 years of program and project management experience in design and construction industries. In his new role, he'll be responsible for firm-wide management of project, office and staff resources.

Wabtec reported first-quarter net income of $148 million, with a 19 percent yearly increase in earnings per share compared with the same quarter last year. Earnings per diluted share rose from 83 cents in the prior-year quarter to 99 cents in the first quarter. Sales rose 18 percent to $819 million due to growth in the company's Freight Group. Wabtec expects its 2015 earnings to total around $4.10 per share.