France: Knorr Bremse subsidiary Freinrail has relocated its activities to Reims.
Great Britain: On April 28 Cubic Ltd completed the purchase of Thorn Transit Systems International, which becomes part of the Cubic Automatic Revenue Collection Group that includes WCL, Scanpoint and Southern Cubic.
GEC Alsthom Diesels has bought diesel engine manufacturer Mirrlees Blackstone from BTR plc. Mirrlees’ main plant is in Stockport, with a foundry in Stamford, and subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, Singapore and the USA.
The Turbochargers Division of ABB Industrial Systems has opened a service centre offering repairs and spare parts in Crawley, complementing its Telford and Aberdeen operations.
India: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has been chosen by IR as the first beneficiary of the technology transfer agreement set up between Adtranz and IR for the local manufacture of three-phase electric traction, included in the WAP5 and WAG9 loco deal.
Malaysia’s Usha Tagas and Ircon have set up a joint venture to install optic fibre communications along IR’s routes from Mumbai to Chennai (Madras), Bangalore and Hyderabad; spare capacity left after IR has upgraded its links will be leased to private telecom operators.
Indo-Czech joint venture Technip-MTH-Storjexport India Pvt Ltd (TMS) has signed a contract with Bharat Udyog Nigam Ltd to build track maintenance machinery in India.
Yugoslavia: Valdunes of France has signed a FFr80m joint venture with ZTP of Beograd for the manufacture of wheelsets; Valdunes will produce wheels for machining locally by ZTP, and supply machinery, technology transfer and technical assistance.
