Sekisui has opened a fibre-reinforced foamed urethane sleeper production facility at Roermond in the Netherlands. Until now it had undertaken all production in Japan, and the Dutch plant will increase capacity and significantly reduce delivery times to European markets. Production of 100 000 sleepers per year is planned.
Wascosa has closed the raise of its existing capex facility by €90m and the incorporation of a second capex facility of €150m with KfW IPEX-Bank. The leasing company said this had established a solid long-term basis for further investments in wagons.
Christian Schreyer is to stand down as Go-Ahead Group Chief Executive at the end of October, and will be succeeded by Miguel Ángel Parras from November 1. Schreyer joined Go-Ahead in 2021 and led the business through the move from public to private ownership. He agreed with the board that he would establish a new executive leadership team, resolve issues in the international rail business and grow the bus business through acquisitions and tender wins. Parras is Chief Investment Officer at Globalvia, and led the acquisition of Go-Ahead by Kinetic and Globalvia. He previously spent 10 years at infrastructure group FCC. Clare Hollingsworth is to step down as Non-Executive Chair at the end of the year; the board will announce a successor in due course.
Cummins has opened a US$10m Master Rebuild Centre for high horsepower engines including the QSK19, QSK38 and QSK60 in Kraków, the first of its kind in Europe. It said rebuilt engines have a much shorter lead time than new ones, and perform to the same specification.
Huawei partnered with China Railway Signal & Communication and China Telecom to build a dedicated data network for communications, control and dispatch on Whoosh, the Jakarta – Bandung high speed line which is equipped with Chinese Train Control System Level 3.
Industrial tools supplier Enerpac has acquired exclusive worldwide rights to the Track Tools brand and track maintenance products.
Private company Magyar Vagon has acquired a 75% stake in the Hungarian state railway group’s MÁV Vagon rolling stock repair plant in Szolnok. MÁV expects this to make MÁV Vagon more competitive and business oriented, with faster turnaround times.
Rob Illsley has been appointed Managing Director of digital signalling and control systems company Comms Design, taking over on October 1 from founder Dr Paul Clark who will continue to provide technology and engineering support.