GEC Transportation Projects Ltd., (GEC-TPL) was established in 1974 and was based at St Albans and Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. It specialised in the design, execution and management of major railway and mass transit electrification projects around the world. In 1981 GEC-TPL was transferred to Trafford Park in Manchester took over residual responsibility for vehicle design from GEC Traction, e.g. British Railways Class 91s and locomotive equipment design, e.g., British Railways Class 90s. GEC-TPL project managed 406 track kilometres of electrification in Taiwan in 1984. It involved the design, supply and installation of equipment including catenary, substations, telecommunications, locomotives and multiple units. The company also supplied the 134, 3-car trains and project managed the equipment of Lines 3 and 4 of Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corporation. Closer to home, GEC-TPL was the project management company for Phase 1 of the Docklands Light Railway and the Manchester ‘Metrolink’ and supplied the initial vehicles for both systems. In 1987, GEC-TPL contracted to supply the body mounted power equipment for the initial build of Trans Manche Super Trains, later known as ‘Eurostars’, the bar car mechanical parts for which were supplied by its long term partner Metropolitan Cammell which later became part of GEC-TPL in 1989. In 1989, GEC Transportation Projects Ltd became part of the joint company, GEC Alsthom Transportation Projects Ltd., when GEC and Alsthom of France, part of Compagnie Générale d’Electricité (CGE) formed GEC Alsthom. The combined company acquired Metropolitan Cammell at this time. (Alsthom’s name had earlier been derived from ‘Alsace Thomson-Houston’, thereby revealing its earlier parentage from Thomson-Houston of America, as also had the British Thomson-Houston Co., of Rugby, another GEC constituent). In 1998 the company formally changed its name to ALSTOM.

In 1988 a joint-venture was formed between the General Electric Company (GEC) with Compagnie Générale d’Electricité (CGE) that led to the establishment of an Anglo-French company, GEC Alsthom in 1989. This company encompassed the Power Generation and Transmission, Rail Transport (25%) businesses from the constituent companies of GEC and CGE. The GEC Alsthom company headquarters were based at Rugby, Warwickshire and the headquarters for Transport were based at Trafford Park in Manchester. GEC Alsthom purchased train builder Metro-Cammell based at Washwood Heath, Birmingham from the Laird Group in 1989, bringing into the group a company which had a long association with GEC Traction and its predecessors as a vehicle builder. In 1998 GEC Alsthom was re-formed and became Alstom with Transport / Alstom Transport one of its major divisions.

GEC Alsthom Traction was formed from the merger of GEC and Alcatel-Alsthom (formerly known as Compagnie Générale d’Electricité of France) in 1989, which created a Joint Venture of their Power Engineering businesses (Power Stations, Switchgear and Rail Transport). The UK headquarters of the traction business was based at Trafford Park in Manchester. GEC Alsthom purchased train builder Metro-Cammell based at Washwood Heath, Birmingham from the Laird Group in 1989, bringing into the group a company which had a long association with GEC Traction and its predecessors as a vehicle builder. GEC Alsthom Traction became part of the Transport Equipment Group (TEG) with the French sites Ornans (motors), Tarbes (control equipment) and Villeurbanne (electronic systems, converters and control equipment), later joined by ACEC Transport (Charleroi). A major project in this period was the design and build of the Trans Manche Super Train (TMST) for London. TMST, later known as Eurostar Class 373, was the first TGV with asynchronous traction drive, all TGVs until later Duplex fleets having DC or synchronous traction drives. It was designed for three voltages 750v DC for the UK Southern Region, 3000v DC for Belgium and 25kV for the tunnel and France, and later for HS1 high speed line from the tunnel to London. SNCF later added 1500v DC to 4 trains to allow the trains to run to the Alps. In 1993, as part of the rationalisation of the equipment group, it was announced that the headquarters of GEC Alsthom Traction would move to Preston, leaving only Power Module design and manufacture at Manchester, and a project team was set up at Preston for the regeneration of the Preston site, with the eventual closing of all activities at Trafford Park in 1998. At the same time, there was rationalisation of product lines in the equipment group, with inductors and auxiliary converters moving to Preston, traction motor design concentrated at Ornans, switchgear at Tarbes and electronic control systems at Villeurbanne. GEC Alsthom Traction became Alstom Traction on 22nd June 1998 and the company name survived to 19th August 2008 but was increasingly integrated within the Transport division of Alstom.

In 1910 the state-owned South African Railways and Harbours (SAR&H) organisation was created, after the four colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State were amalgamated into the new Union of South Africa. In 1916, SAR&H took over the activities of the Central South African Railways, the Cape Government Railways and the Natal Government Railways. In 1924 the last privately owned railway line in South Africa was taken over by SAR&H; the New Cape Central Railway between Worcester and Voor Bay. In 1920 electrification of South Africa’s railways was completed, and in 1924 the first electric test train ran between Ladysmith and Chieveley in Natal. In 1950 the first portion of the new Johannesburg station was opened and construction was completed on the huge workshops complex at Koedoespoort. In 1960, diesel locomotives were introduced on a large scale to SAR&H. In 1981, SAR&H changed its name to South African Transport Services (SATS) and took on South Africa’s railway, harbour, road transport, and aviation and pipeline operations.