USA: Hitachi Rail has opened a factory at Hagerstown in Maryland where it will produce rolling stock for North American customers including the Washington DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia metros.
‘The Hagerstown factory showcases the unique strengths of the Hitachi Group by integrating manufacturing expertise and digital and AI technologies across a wide range of our business domains’, said Hitachi Ltd President & CEO Toshiaki Tokunaga when the site was officially opened on September 8.
‘Our $100m Hagerstown site represents a strategic investment in North America, sustaining 1 300 jobs and delivering the next generation of rail manufacturing’, said Hitachi Rail Group CEO Giuseppe Marino. ‘The site is carbon neutral and harnesses the impressive capabilities of the Hitachi Group to ensure our customers benefit from smart manufacturing powered by transformative digital and AI technologies. Able to deliver up to 20 railcars per month, the factory will be working at full pace to deliver important railcar contracts across North America’.
The factory will make use of real-time supply chain and manufacturing monitoring, and local component production using on-site additive manufacturing for spares and tooling.
It has zero CO2 emissions, with solar panels and an agreement to source 100% renewable electricity, and will operate with zero landfill waste.
‘Our new digital factory in Hagerstown is more than just a train manufacturing site – it is a blueprint for the future of rail production worldwide, harnessing the latest AI, robotics, and digital systems to deliver high-quality, smart, and reliable manufacturing’, said Joe Pozza, President of North America at Hitachi Rail.
Up to 460 people will work directly for Hitachi Rail on-site, and the company said it would bring a total added value to the region of more than $350m/year.
Ryan Companies was lead construction contractor. Hitachi Group’s GlobalLogic worked with Ericsson to design and deploy a 5G private network for the site. ‘Private 5G connectivity is a game-changer for advanced manufacturing environments’, said Pozza. ‘This secure, high-performance connectivity allows us to automate more processes, protect our workforce and accelerate innovation.’
State Governor Wes Moore said the factory ‘affirms Maryland’s position as a premier location for global investment in the industries of the future’. US Secretary of Transportation Sean P Duffy said ‘this state-of-the-art Hitachi plant is a powerful example of this administration’s commitment to reshore jobs and build big, beautiful infrastructure projects that benefit American families’.
Hitachi has several orders to deliver vehicles from the Hagerstown factory, although a ‘small number’ of test trains will be built in its other global facilities. Washington WMATA has ordered 256 Series 8000 cars with options for up to 800, Maryland Transit Authority 78 cars for Baltimore, and SEPTA has ordered 200 cars for Philadelphia’s Market-Frankford Line.
