Market OmniTRAX affiliate acquires Heart of Texas Railroad
A managed affiliate of OmniTRAX, Inc. is purchasing the Heart of Texas Railroad (HTR) from private local investors. The transaction is subject to Surface Transportation Board approval. Terms were not disclosed. The line, which is being renamed Central Texas & Colorado River Railway, LLC, operates 68 miles of track running due west from Lometa, Tex., where it interchanges with BNSF, to Brady, Tex.
North America Rocky Mountaineer: Awarded a contract to Switzerland’s Stadler to build 10 double-deck passenger coaches for delivery in 2018. Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis: Awarded Wabtec Corp. a contract worth about $21 million to design, install, test and commission a Positive Train Control (PTC) system. United Rail (Jacksonville, Fla.): Entered into a joint venture with Switzerland-based Ganser CRS, a supplier of common-rail fuel injection systems for off-road diesel engines.
Worldwide: Bangkok Mass Transit System: Awarded contracts worth $305 million for two fleets of metro trains. Siemens will supply 22 four-car Inspirosets
while CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles, China, will supply a further 24 four-car trains. Korail (Korea): Selected Hyundai Rotem to supply a fleet of 30 HEMU250 trains for operation on the new Gyeongjeon line to Masan in the south of the country in 2020. British train operator TransPennine Express: Selected CAF, Spain, to supply and maintain a fleet of 125-mph intercity EMUs and coaches to be hauled by Class 68 locomotives under a total investment worth $336 million. Zürich City Council (Switzerland): Approved the acquisition of 70 meter-gauge Flexity 2 LRVs for $363 million from Bombardier to replace the aging Tram 2000 fleet introduced in the 1970s. Renfe (Spanish National Railways): Modified the terms of its call for bids
on a contract for the procurement of up to 30 high-speed trains as a consequence of an appeal against the process won by Bombardier. The administrative court ruled against Renfe and ordered the public company to restart the controversial process, but this time suppressing the clause that required bidders to manufacture most of the components for the trains in Spain. Circumetnea Railway (Sicily): Introduced its first new trains in more than 20 years, when the first of four Vulcano DMUs supplied by Newag, Poland, entered service in towns surrounding Mount Etna. The $16.5 million contract represents Newag’s first rolling stock order outside Poland. Netherlands Railways: Exercised a second and final option with Bombardier for eight additional Class 186 Traxx multi-system electric locomotives, taking its fleet to 45 units. June 2016 Railway Age 7