Rail fastenings specialist Pandrol has announced a five-year extension to its agreement to act as Kansas-based glass reinforced recycled plastic sleeper manufacturer Sicut‘s sole distributor across North America. ’Not only do Sicut ties offer outstanding value, extremely long service life, and the lowest embodied carbon, but they also help North America address its targets for plastic recycling and the reversal of hardwood deforestation’, said Sicut CEO William Mainwaring.
Australian wagon manufacturing and leasing company Rail First Asset Management has appointed Beata Lipman to the newly created role of Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer, responsible for leading the development of commercial partnerships, new rail leasing and maintenance products and exploring new markets. Lipman has more than 18 years of commercial and operational experience at companies including Pacific National, Asciano and PwC.
Alstom booked €3·9bn of orders in Q1 from April 1 to June 30, 30·8% down on the previous year, while sales reached €4·2bn, up 4·3%. ‘The market environment remains positive with a large pipeline of opportunities over the next three years’, said Chairman & CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge on July 25. ‘Our focus on execution has enabled our organic sales to increase in line with our announced trajectory.’
Leasing company Alpha Trains now has a total of 1 006 locomotives and rolling stock assets. ‘Reaching 1000 assets is an incredible achievement’, said CEO Fernando Pérez on July 26. ‘It demonstrates our position as a leading lessor of locomotives and trains and underlines our commitment to providing attractive and flexible leasing solutions that best meet our customers’ needs.’
Alstom has joined the US High Speed Rail Association’s Executive Committee. Alstom Chief Commercial Officer Scott Sherin said ‘USHSR is leading the way in bringing high speed rail to America. Alstom is committed to doing its part through the manufacturing of high-speed trains built in America for America.’
‘We see continued strong demand globally for the majority of railcar types in our existing fleets’, said GATX President & CEO Robert C Lyons when presenting Q2 results on July 25. North American fleet utilisation was 99·3% at the end of Q2 and the renewal success rate was 85·3%. The international business ‘performed well and continued to experience higher renewal lease rates compared to expiring rates for most railcar types’, and for the second consecutive quarter GATX Rail Europe and GATX Rail India expanded their fleets with a combined total of nearly 1 000 new wagons.
Within the scope of a private placement, Vossloh has issued five-year and seven-year Schuldschein loans totalling €60m with variable interest rates linked to the ESG conformity rate of sales under the EU Taxonomy Regulation; 100% of Vossloh’s sales were rated taxonomy-eligible and 64% taxonomy-aligned in FY2022. Bayerische Landesbank and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg’ acted as joint lead arrangers, with the former also acting as ESG adviser.
A workshop was held on July 19-20 to bring together experts from Rail Baltica project promoter RB Rail and Lithuanian and Polish infrastructure managers LTG Infra and PKP PLK to discuss work schedules, technical parameters and the interfaces between control, signalling and electrification systems.