Railway supply industry news round-up

Following a successful pilot project, Alstom is to deepen its collaboration with Swedish start-up Stilfold to explore how its ‘origami-like’ method of bending and folding steel sheets to reduce weight and waste could be applied to a wider range of structural elements. ‘We have been able to confirm that Stilfold is a highly promising technology with potential across several types of train components’, said Ganesh Chandramouli, Head of Innovation, Strategy & Product Portfolio at Alstom Sweden. Stilfold CEO Jonas Nyvang said ‘this is exactly the type of industrial validation for which we have built Stilfold. Taking this step together with Alstom from pilot to broader application confirms that our technology has the potential to redefine how steel components are constructed and produced.’

The government of Nigeria and the World Bank’s International Finance Corp have signed an agreement to initiate a pipeline of public-private partnership projects to mobilise ‘substantial capital and private sector expertise’ across key infrastructure sectors including transport. ‘This agreement is about ensuring that we prepare projects properly so investors have confidence and clarity on where to deploy capital’, said Senator Abubakar Bagudu, Minister of Budget & Economic Planning.

Czech turnout manufacturer DT Výhybkárna a Strojírna has begun a year of non-operational testing of a high-speed turnout whioch is designed to enable train movements at speeds of up to 350 km/h on the straight route and 230 km/h on the diverging route. The tests aim to verify the design concept, functional properties in various operating modes and long-term stability of parameters. 

Lorea Aristizabal and Tomás Olano have joined the Talgo board, replacing Marisa Poncela and Carlos Palacio Oriol. Both appointments must be ratified at the next shareholders’ meeting. The board now comprises eight directors: José Antonio Jainaga (President, and President of steelmaker Sidenor), Maite Echarri, Juan Antonio Sánchez Corchero, Antonio Oporto, Arantza Estefanía, Ricardo Chocarro, Lorea Aristizabal and Tomás Olano. Carlos Palacio Oriol, who had been President since 2002 and the fouynder’s grandson, remains as a shareholder and President of the Talgo Foundation. He said ‘it gives me great satisfaction and peace of mind to be able to retire from the presidency now, leaving Talgo in the hands of an exemplary Basque industrialist such as José Antonio Jainaga, who will take it very far’.

Through the integration of Rail Europe’s API, Juniper Travel Technology now enables more than 550 travel agencies worldwide to sell European rail products alongside their existing accommodation, flight and other services.  Rail Europe said onboarding is fast, allowing agencies to start selling rail products within a matter of days, and to benefit from Rail Europe’s commercial support, commission structure and access to additional services including group bookings.

Alstom has opened a welding and fitter training centre at its Mátranovák plant in Hungary. This has 10 welding stations, a cutting machine, two console cranes and component clamps and rotators of the type used in production, as well as a classroom, changing room and a common area for students. ‘Mátranovák is Alstom’s most important site for the production of railway bogie frames, and its knowledge and competency is essential for the company’, said site managing director Carine Siegwalt. ‘It is important for us to strengthen the inflow of well-trained professionals to our site and keep the knowledge of our most important operators at a high level.’

Transmashholding’s Tver Institute of Car Engineering has undertaken load testing of prototype vehicle bodies produced by TMH Tver for a planned Type 62-4584 hydrogen trainset.