Railway Market

WMATA awards contracts worth $389 million

Washington Metropolitan Transportation Authority selected Alstom and Motorola to provide car modernization services and communications equipment, respectively, in contracts valued at $389 million. Alstom will overhaul 364 rapid transit cars under a $329 million contract. As part of the program, Alstom will upgrade the existing propulsion systems with its ONIX 2000 a.c. traction drives and will install advanced cab signaling systems. Delivery will begin in August 2002 and continue until June 2005. WMATA also awarded a $60 million contract to Motorola for a radio communications system for its rail, bus, police, and maintenance departments. Motorola will provide 1,900-plus Motorola XTS 3000™ portable radios; 50-plus Motorola MW 520 mobile data terminals to give transit police direct access to state and federal crime databases; over 2,000 pagers; and 29 Motorola CENTRACOM Gold Elite™ dispatch consoles. Everything will be in place by year-end 2002.

Equipment

CSX Transportation: Will acquire 100 SD40-2 locomotives, remanufactured by Alstom at its Montreal facilities and worth more than $80 million, through a multi-year lease agreement with CIT Rail Resources. They are scheduled for delivery in this year's first quarter. CXST acquired 50 Alstom-rebuilt SD40-2s in 2000.

Docklands Light Rail: Exercised an option on its contract with Alcatel Transport Automation Systems to provide 12 additional onboard controller units for Docklands' new automated metro cars. Docklands ordered 12 units in early 2000. The onboard controller is an "intelligent" microprocessor unit that interprets commands from, and exchanges data with, the central control system. Delivery will begin in January 2002 and continue until March 2002.

GO Transit: Awarded a $25.1 million rebuild contract to Bombardier for 71 bilevel commuter cars (56 coaches and 15 cab cars). Completion is scheduled for the end of 2004.

Metra (Chicago): Awarded a $398.6 million contract to Sumitomo Corp. of America to supply 250 stainless steel bilevel commuter cars with an option for an additional 50. The new cars will allow Metra to add trains to the North Central Service route to Antioch and the Southwest Service line to Orland Park, following completion of track and signal improvements on both by 2005. Sumitomo will supply the car shells and components for assembly at Super Steel of Milwaukee, Wis. Delivery will begin in 2003.

Facilities

City of Calgary: Awarded A&B Rail Contractors Ltd., a CIRC company based in Edmonton, a contract for Calgary's South LRT expansion project. Completion is scheduled for Aug. 30, 2001.

NJ Transit: Awarded a $32 million contract to the M-Track Enterprises/L.K. Comstock, Inc., joint venture for construction of a new storage and light maintenance rail yard at Morrisville, Pa. The new yard, which will initially be able to store up to 10 trainsets, will help NJ Transit increase service on the Northeast Corridor when the new station serving Newark International Airport and the Secaucus Transfer station are phased in.