STADLER Rail Group Chief Executive and majority shareholder Peter Spuhler cut the first sod on the site of a new office building in Bussnang on September 17, marking the start of work on a new headquarters which will be completed by April next year.

Larger offices are needed to accommodate growth at the Swiss-based train and tram building group, which has 'developed successfully' in the first six months of 2007 with 'important success' at home and abroad. The company announced in September that it is on course to meet budget targets of SFr1·1bn of orders in 2007, and said there are now more than 2 400 staff across the Stadler group, up 20% on last year. The company has also taken on 68 apprentices who are being trained to meet future staffing needs.

A Stadler assembly plant at Siedlce in Poland was formally opened on September 5, and will produce 14 Flirt EMUs ordered by the Silesia and Mazowsze regional governments in June 2006 (RG 9.06 p620). An Algerian subsidiary will be established by the end of this year to maintain the 64 four-car Flirts on order for Alger suburban services (RG 5.06 p244). In contrast, a lack of suitable work means that the plant at Weiden in Bayern which was leased from the creditors of Partner für Fahrzeugausstattung at the end of 2004 is expected to close by the end of this year.

Following SBB's call for tenders for the new Zürich S-Bahn fleet, at the end of August Stadler submitted bids to supply what would be the first double-deck rolling stock built by the company.

• CAPTION: During December Stadler will ship the last of six GTW DMUs ordered by Capital Metro of Austin, Texas, at a cost of $32m. The first left Bremmerhaven in September, and is due to begin test runs on the 51 km MetroRail Red Line between central Austin and Leander by end of the year

Orders received by Stadler in 2007