In the second quarter of 2020 (Q2/2020), Canadian rolling stock and aircraft manufacturer Bombardier posted extraordinary charges of EUR 435 million for inherited liabilities from railway projects in Germany and the UK. Among other things, this includes costs for the approval and retrofitting of rolling stock. The bottom line was a loss of EUR 271 million (CAD 427 million) before interest and taxes (EBIT). In Q2/2019, Bombardier had generated a positive result of EUR 131 million. Two thirds of the charges are effective cash. Bombardier recorded a cash outflow of EUR 660 million in Q2/2020 alone. The company had recently received approval from the European Union (EU) for the sale of its rail division to its French rival Alstom, which could generate up to EUR 6.2 billion.
Source: Bombardier press release 06.08.2020

On 31st July 2020, the UK\'s Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that all passenger rail transport franchisees that have been included in the Emergency Measures Agreement (EMA) as operators of Last Resort (OLR) will be classified as public entities. In March 2020, the UK Department for Transport (DfT) suspended all franchise agreements to allow passenger rail franchises which were threatened with insolvency due to the collapse of passenger numbers as a result of the coronavirus pandemic to continue operations (((13/2020-78250))). The reclassification only affects the calculation of public sector borrowing and the number of public sector employees. Contrary to what franchisees feared (((29/2020-82388))), the measure has no impact on the ownership of the company.
Source: ONS press release 31.07.2020

Tobias Krogmann has been appointed the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of National Express Rail as of 1st August 2020. Krogmann shares the management with Thomas Findlay Stables and Marcel Winter. In his new position he is responsible for the company´s financial development and strategic orientation in Germany at the Cologne location. Most recently, Tobias Krogmann headed the regional bus companies of DB Regio in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Bremen as Managing Director for over four years.
Source: National Express press release 03.08.2020

Russian rolling stock manufacturer RPM Group will deliver 20 ballast cleaning machines of the type Shchom-1400 to Russian state railway RZD by the end of 2020. RPM Group is a subsidiary of Russian vehicle manufacturer Sinara Transport Machines (STM). The vehicles are being manufactured at the Kalugaputmash plant since 2017. In the first three years of operation, the Shchom-1400 models have cleaned around 1,500 km of ballast. A total of 14 vehicles of this type have been delivered to RZD so far, more specifically one in 2017, three in 2018 and ten in 2019.
Source: Gudok.ru 27.07.2020

Polish leasing company Cargounit has secured the financing for the procurement of five multi-system locomotives of the type Vectron from manufacturer Siemens worth around EUR 22.7 million (PLN 100 million). Cargounit has secured the funds from Siemens Financial Services. The locomotives are scheduled to be delivered starting in the first quarter of 2021 (Q1/2021). They will have homologations for Poland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria. 
Source: Cargounit press release 05.08.2020