A YORK computer company which specialises in devising management systems software for the railway industry will share in a blockbuster £32 million order from German railways.

VST Comreco Rail, the £7 million turnover operation in Blossom Street, York, will shoulder some of the major tasks in the deal brokered by parent company Vossloh Systemelektronik (VST) to equip 1,200 German passenger train carriages and 145 locomotives with new information and communications technology.

The project, to be completed by mid-2004, will include automatic external route indicators for passengers as well as interior displays and modules for electronic seat reservation.

The Blossom Street office, whose 100 staff devised the long-term train scheduling software for Railtrack, will support its German head office with database design and management.

"They will take information from a number of sources," said Alastair Dick, head of marketing and sales for VST Comreco Rail.

"Most railways around the world develop their systems on an ad hoc basis, but what many advanced administrations are trying to do is move towards a more integrated project. You can either go for 'the big bang' which covers everything and in which lie inherent dangers, or you can build up to it by integrating data from different sources and creating a sort of data warehouse."

The York firm, which initially will cope with existing staff, has already provided software products to Railtrack; Freightcorps of New South Wales, Australia; Taiwan Railways; the Hong Kong rail network; Indian Railways; Scandinavian rail operators; and Israeli and Romanian railways.