• Ansaldo STS recently received a $10.7 million contract from a Russian Railways subsidiary to test the supplier’s ITARUS-ATC signaling system on a site near the city of Sochi. ITARUS-ATC is based on the interoperable European Rail Traffic Management System/European Train Control System. The pact marks Ansaldo STS’ entry into the Russian market. Design, transportation, installation, testing and commissioning will take about two and one-half years to complete, according to a prepared statement.

• The French National Railways (SNCF) recently placed a $188.5 million order with Alstom Transport for an additional 19 Regiolis regional trains. In October 2009, SNCF ordered 100 Coradia Polyvalent trains from Alstom. The 119 trainsets will be distributed between the regions of Alsace, Aquitaine, Lorraine, Midi-Pyrenees, Pays de la Loire, Provence - Alpes - Cote d’Azur and Picardie. The total number of Coradia Polyvalent trains eventually could reach 1,000 units, according to a prepared statement. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2013 and end in mid-2015.

• For The Knorr-Bremse Group, sales growth in the non-North America rail vehicle sector wasn’t enough to offset a “massive slump” in the commercial vehicle realm in 2009, according to a prepared statement. The Germany-based manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles recorded sales of about $4 billion in 2009, an 18.3 decline compared with $4.9 billion in the year-earlier period. Company officials do not expect “any significant recovery” in the commercial vehicle markets in 2010; they also expect U.S. demand “to remain slow,” although the passenger-rail segment “could well pick up speed.”