Several major changes have happened over the last few months.

Carillion Plant have recently been taken over by Colas Rail. From a press release:

Jan 8th 2008

"Colas Rail Ltd announced today that it has purchased the Carillion Plant Rail Business. This acquisition means that Colas Rail now owns the largest fleet of modern On-track Plant in the country. The contracts associated with this plant have also transferred as part of the agreement. Strategically this purchase represents a major step in the company’s aspiration to become a key player in the UK Rail Industry.

Through this acquisition the following plant has now transferred to Colas Rail: 12 Tampers, 3 Regulators, a locomotive, a 125T Kirow Crane, 16 switch Handling Units (Pem/Lem) together with the freehold of the Mill Lane Plant Depot in Rugby. In addition to this 156 employees have joined Colas Rail.

Charles-Albert Giral, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are delighted to have secured this contract and the acquisition ties in with our long-term strategy. Colas Rail Ltd will continue to deliver these contracts for Network Rail offering a quality service, delivered on time, on budget and most importantly safely. There is no doubt that this expansion concludes a very exciting year and leads us into a very promising start for 2008.” "

However, it is not quite as straightforward as it seems! We have been told that ownership of several items of Carillion Rail on-track plant passed to other Carllion companies prior to the sale of Carillion Rail Plant. So not everything previously owned by Carillion has passed to Colas Rail!

72207 has been exported to Newag in Italy while 73102 has been sent over to Sweden - both around April 2007.

Connected with this, the company formerly known as AMEC SPIE Rail has also undergone some changes:

"In May 2007 AMEC SPIE Rail changed its name to Colas Rail Ltd and an integrated management structure was formed embracing the activities of both Colas Rail Ltd and Seco Rail Ltd .

Colas Rail Ltd is a company with enormous history behind it. SPIE Rail has a century-long history of successful development in the wide sphere of railway engineering. The combination of the expertise found in both Colas Rail Ltd and Seco Rail Ltd will help make Colas Rail a major player in the UK rail industry

SECO (Société d'Études et de Construction d'Outillage) was set up in 1931 to build and operate the first mechanised ballast cleaning and levelling machine. In October 2000, SECO, renamed Seco Rail, became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Colas group, world leader in road construction, and has continued growing in the French and international markets, with subsidiaries in Belgium and the UK.

AMEC Rail was formed following the privatisation of British Rail. Initially a maintenance company specialising in the Southern region, the company developed and diversified. In 1999 a joint venture company was formed between AMEC and SPIE (AMEC SPIE Rail Systems Ltd). In 2001 AMEC purchased SPIE and new company was created - AMEC SPIE Rail Ltd. By early 2007 it had become both a project-based company with contracts across the UK and a freight operator."

Amey machines remain under Amey ownership. ColasRail are in "joint venture" with Amey in terms of the renewals & although ColasRail are the bigger organisation, it is still an equal partnership.