Stadler signed its first Flirt EMU maintenance contract in Norway on October 26, a three-year extendable deal with NSB Gjøvikbanen which runs from January 1 and covers 10 units. The existing Lodalen maintenance facility in Oslo will be adapted for the contract, which is modelled on a similar agreement with Sweden's MTR Express. Stadler already provides full maintenance services for Bergen's Bybanen tram fleet.
Alstom has scored B on the Carbon Disclosure Project’s climate change questionnaire scale from A to D, benchmarked against peer companies from the industrial, electrical equipment and machinery sectors. ‘Alstom is really proud to have received such a good grade’, said Cécile Texier, Director for Sustainability & CSR, on October 25. ‘It was the first time Alstom answered the CDP questionnaire for its current perimeter focused on transport activities. This demonstrates the group’s will to be transparent on its actions. With this score, Alstom is above the average French companies and companies from the same business sector.‘
United Wagon Co’s TikhvinChemMash subsidiary has completed its 1 000th tank wagon since launching in December 2015. One of 25 Type 15-9993-01 wagons being built for the Magistral transport subsidiary of ethyl alcohol producer Rosspirtprom, the vehicle incorporates polymer materials on the contact surfaces of the sill to provide more resistance to degradation than wooden beams on older designs.
Kazakhstan Railways’ technical centre is developing specifications for modern designs of covered, open, tank and flat wagons which would be produced domestically under a government-backed import substitution programme. Requirements include higher capacities than current designs, with longer intervals between maintenance. The production of 6 000 wagons/year is envisaged.
Altran and Nokia are co-operating to develop internet of things and analytics technologies to improve railway operators’ operational efficiency in areas such as predictive maintenance and energy management.