Ansaldo STS wins Turkey, UAE contracts

Ansaldo STS, a Finmeccanica Group company, won new orders totaling around $132.6 million in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

In Turkey, Ansaldo signed agreements with the Italo-Turkish joint venture, Salini-GCF-Kolin, to supply rail signaling, automation and telecommunications systems for the Gebze-Kosekoy stretch of high-speed track between Ankara and Istanbul.

The new line will be equipped with the standard European ERTMS/ETCS level 1 signaling system, which the company is already supplying in Turkey under another contract previously awarded. Entry into operation is scheduled for 2014.

Also in Turkey, Ansaldo is to supply — via Korean multinational Hyundai-Rotem — on-board signaling systems for 80 locomotives that Turkish state rail operator TCDD plans to purchase from the Korean supplier to expand and upgrade its fleet.

The systems will comply with ERTMS/ETCS level 1 standards and final delivery is scheduled for 2013. These two contracts strengthen the technological leadership and presence of Ansaldo STS in a strategic country with major investment already allocated to modernization of its rail network.

In the United Arab Emirates, Ansaldo was awarded a contract by the Italo-Indian joint venture created by Saipem-Tecnimont-Dodsal for the system integration of the newly constructed Shah-Habshan-Ruwais line, the first stretch of the constituent rail network owned by Etihad Rail (the UAE rail operator).

The contract is to supply signaling, automation and telecommunications systems, as well as other smaller systems for the management and control of passenger and freight traffic, for a line about 161.5miles long that will link the Shah industrial complex with the port of Ruwais.

The signaling system to be supplied by Ansaldo will comply with the ERTM/ETCS level 2 European standard, currently the most advanced in a market which Ansaldo leads. The works will take 36 months and completion is scheduled in two phases, the first after 24 months and the second after a further 12 months.