USA: Siemens Mobility announced on January 19 that it had won a US$321m order for design, manufacture and installation of communications-based train control on the PATH rail network linking Newark, Jersey City and Manhattan. The award of the contract had been approved by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey on October 22 last year.

Due to be completed in 2017, the work is to be undertaken by a Siemens-led consortium including Invensys Rail Corp (formerly Safetran Systems) and the D/A Builders LLC joint venture of Newark-based Daidone Electric and Aldridge Electric of Illinois. As well as equipping 69 km of track, the contract covers the fitting of Siemens’ Trainguard MT on-board equipment on 130 of 340 new EMU cars currently being supplied by Kawasaki Railcar; there is an option to equip a further 90 vehicles.

Much of the current signalling dates back to the opening of the 100-year old Hudson & Manhattan network, and the installation of CBTC is expected to increase capacity by up to 20%. It forms part of a comprehensive upgrading of PATH which will accommodate a projected increase in ridership from 240 000 to 290 000 passengers per day.

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