UNITED States freight railways transported 27,489,960 wagonloads and intermodal units in 2017, an increase of 3.4% compared with 2016.
CATERPILLAR subsidiary Progress Rail has acquired Italian signalling company ECM for an undisclosed sum. The transaction was officially completed on January 2 and ECM will become part of Progress Rail’s signalling division.
ALSTOM confirmed on January 3 that it has successfully concluded a three-year period of self-reporting obligations with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) following a global corruption scheme that was uncovered in 2014.
THE US Federal government has denied that any agreement was in place to help fund the $US 20bn Gateway programme to increase capacity on the Northeast Corridor.
NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) CEO Mr Roger van Boxtel says NS will once again bid for Dutch regional concessions following improvements in performance and a successful period of “cleaning up” following the Fyra fiasco and Limburg tender irregularities.
BIDS have been invited by May 9 2018 for the operation of Network 7b of the EBO regional rail network in the Karlsruhe area of Germany. The tender is split in two lots and both concessions will be for 12 years starting in December 2022.
THE board of Belgium’s infrastructure manger Infrabel has approved additional investment of €1.15bn for the period 2018-2031 on top of the €4.3bn in the 2017-2020 plan which will enable the Brussels RER project and some regional schemes to be completed.
THE death was announced on December 16 of Mr E Hunter Harrison, president and CEO of US class 1 railway CSX due to unexpectedly severe complications following a recent illness.
VOSSLOH has completed its financial restructuring by concluding a new €150m five-year syndicated loan in the form of a revolving credit. The loan has two options to extend the final maturity by one year each and can be increased if necessary by up €150m.
THE European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) a loan of up to €500m to finance the purchase of new Desiro ML EMUs from Siemens, and Talent 3s from Bombardier.
