Passenger Trains > Stadler US factory expansion

Work is well underway on an expansion of the Stadler US factory which will allow Stadler to construct carshells right here in the US, it will also add more production space.

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Nice info. Could you narrow down on the location?  
RB

I looked at their website.  It appears to be Salt Lake City.

They’re out along the 80 freeway.

You can’t miss it coming in from the west.

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Yes, this Stadler facility is in the Salt Lake City area, as mentioned along I-80 going west out of town. Easy to see just to the south of the freeway.

This is good news. Stadler has an excellent reputation in Europe, better from what I can tell than Siemens. I have ridden quite a bit on Stadler EMU trainsets in Switzerland, and was impressed on every trip. Very well designed, with lots of thoughtful passenger-focused features, excellent ride quality, impressive acceleration and braking, and obvious high reliability. Not one planned trip was cancelled by equipment failure, and punctuality was impressive. A big part of that of course is the superb overall operational organization of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). But the high-quality Stadler equipment supports that. You cannot achieve the level of service that SBB has without solid, reliable well-designed equipment.

I hope that Stadler is successful in the North American market. If they are, all of us who are rail passengers will benefit.

MC

The Stadler trainsets here on CALTRAIN between SF and San Jose, CA seem to be doing well, and ridership is up after they were introduced.

ironmtn Wrote:
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> Yes, this Stadler facility is in the Salt Lake
> City area, as mentioned along I-80 going west out
> of town. Easy to see just to the south of the
> freeway.
>
> This is good news. Stadler has an excellent
> reputation in Europe, better from what I can tell
> than Siemens. I have ridden quite a bit on Stadler
> EMU trainsets in Switzerland, and was impressed on
> every trip. Very well designed, with lots of
> thoughtful passenger-focused features, excellent
> ride quality, impressive acceleration and braking,
> and obvious high reliability. Not one planned trip
> was cancelled by equipment failure, and
> punctuality was impressive. A big part of that of
> course is the superb overall operational
> organization of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).
> But the high-quality Stadler equipment supports
> that. You cannot achieve the level of service that
> SBB has without solid, reliable well-designed
> equipment.
>
> I hope that Stadler is successful in the North
> American market. If they are, all of us who are
> rail passengers will benefit.
>
> MC

What's the biggest order they are now faced with? I see they do lots of Light Rail vehicles per say, and are doing some cutting edge stuff with propulsion varieties - particularly hydrogen?

jp1822 Wrote:
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> What's the biggest order they are now faced with?
> I see they do lots of Light Rail vehicles per say,
> and are doing some cutting edge stuff with
> propulsion varieties - particularly hydrogen?

I wonder how Stadler would do with a large order for conventional passenger cars?

ts1457 Wrote:
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> jp1822 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> I wonder how Stadler would do with a large order
> for conventional passenger cars?

I'm not sure that they would even accept such an order. Their current catalog, so far as I can tell from everything I've read and what I see on their corporate website, is entirely focused on multiple-unit designs with onboard integrated motive power. Heavily skewed to electric multiple-units (EMU) with the extensive electrification in Europe and in some other parts of the world, but with diesel-powered (DMU) and hybrid-powered (HMU - ?) trainset options too.

On the other hand, they have an order for conventional-style locomotive-hauled cars on the books from Kazakhstan, and completed an order about 10 years ago for Azerbaijan, which included sleepers and restaurant (dining) cars. The cars for the Kazakhstan order look similar to the typical European profile for single-level conventional locomotive-hauled cars such as are found in Switzerland and Germany, and somewhat like the Siemens Venture design in overall appearance. But in much of Europe, trains of such equipment are becoming relatively uncommon, with EMUs taking over many assignments.

They also did the spectacular bi-level cars for the Rocky Mountaineer here in North America, which are very highly thought of from everything I've seen or read. So even though conventional-style locomotive-hauled cars don't show up on their website right now, they might get involved in an order for such cars if the deal was right. But their current specialty clearly seems to be MU-style trainsets and transit vehicles, both of which they do very well with.

Are they one of the firms preparing designs for the new Amtrak long-distance cars? I have no idea, and the list of firms who are preparing design proposals has been kept quite confidential, so far as I know. But I sure hope that they are. I think that they could produce a very good design given all of their other capable designs elsewhere.

MC

ironmtn Wrote:
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> Are they one of the firms preparing designs for
> the new Amtrak long-distance cars? I have no idea,
> and the list of firms who are preparing design
> proposals has been kept quite confidential, so far
> as I know. But I sure hope that they are. I think
> that they could produce a very good design given
> all of their other capable designs elsewhere.

One could dream. To get something done in the interim, I'd suggest an order for fifty Viewliner II coaches with options using equipment trust financing. That might find the interest of Sen. Capito who could get her daily Cardinal. Justification could project that the increased revenue from from capacity constrained trains would pay the equipment trusts. 

Ah - that's right! They did the Rocky Mountaineer cars! That's a big one to me, as that means they know how to design cars with elevators and conventional passenger rail cars with a specialty! 

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What's the biggest order they are now faced with?
> I see they do lots of Light Rail vehicles per say,
> and are doing some cutting edge stuff with
> propulsion varieties - particularly hydrogen?

Their biggest order right now is a complete replacement of the entire MARTA Metro fleet. They do have an order for Hydrogen trains for CalTrans.

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jp1822 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What's the biggest order they are now faced
> with?
> > I see they do lots of Light Rail vehicles per
> say,
> > and are doing some cutting edge stuff with
> > propulsion varieties - particularly hydrogen?
>
> I wonder how Stadler would do with a large order
> for conventional passenger cars?

On a basic technical level they'd need a facility to fabricate the steel shells, the current expansion will only produce Aluminum cars. They would also need much more assembly space.

Paniolo_man Wrote:
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> On a basic technical level they'd need a facility
> to fabricate the steel shells, the current
> expansion will only produce Aluminum cars. They
> would also need much more assembly space.

Appreciate that info.

I assume that Stadler has built steel cars at some point in the past. Does the company have any other assembly facilities in the USA or even North America?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/25 08:46 by ts1457.

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Paniolo_man Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > On a basic technical level they'd need a
> facility
> > to fabricate the steel shells, the current
> > expansion will only produce Aluminum cars. They
> > would also need much more assembly space.
>
> Appreciate that info.
>
> I assume that Stadler has built steel cars at some
> point in the past. Does the company have any other
> assembly facilities in the USA or even North
> America?

Salt Lake City is their only production facility in North America. Though the site is larger than Siemens' Florin plant so they aren't short on land to build new production space.

Paniolo_man Wrote:
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> Salt Lake City is their only production facility
> in North America. Though the site is larger than
> Siemens' Florin plant so they aren't short on land
> to build new production space.

Thanks, that's good.

Paniolo_man Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jp1822 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What's the biggest order they are now faced with?
> > I see they do lots of Light Rail vehicles per say,
> > and are doing some cutting edge stuff with
> > propulsion varieties - particularly hydrogen?
>
> Their biggest order right now is a complete
> replacement of the entire MARTA Metro fleet. They
> do have an order for Hydrogen trains for CalTrans.

Thanks - I did not know about the Atlanta MARTA fleet replacement order. That will be significant, and will tell a lot about the quality of work that the Salt Lake plant can produce, as well as the suitability and reliability of their designs for North American usage and maintenance patterns.

I find the Hydrogen-powered trainsets for CalTrans to be very interesting. Again, we'll learn something from them not only about the applicability of such power supply schemes to real-world use, but the practical suitability and quality of their designs for the way that we run and take care of things here in the US.

Here's hoping that both are successful and go well. We need some successes in the rail passenger equipment area. We have a lot of problems now, and could use some successes and good news.

MC

(PS Just to be clear, I am not a Stadler employee, and I have no investment in them not any business or other relationship to them. I'm just a potential passenger and interested party, like all of you)

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Paniolo_man Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > On a basic technical level they'd need a
> facility
> > to fabricate the steel shells, the current
> > expansion will only produce Aluminum cars. They
> > would also need much more assembly space.
>
> Appreciate that info.
>
> I assume that Stadler has built steel cars at some
> point in the past. Does the company have any other
> assembly facilities in the USA or even North
> America?

Stadler is a relatively new company when it comes to building conventional trains. For the first 60 years of the company's existence they built specialized trains for use in Switzerland. At the turn of the century they had less than 100 employees.

After the founder retired, the family took the company in a new direction and stated building more conventional trains. The most common is the Flirt.

Regarding - Salt Lake City is their only production facility in North America.

1 - Stadler production facility at Salt Lake City, Utah, in May 2019.  Note car on overhead lift.

2 - Stadler Rail in conference room Salt Lake City, Utah.

3 - Stadler Rail production floor May 2019.

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There is a lot of activity in hydrogen fuel cell development. Most of the large equipment makers, car makers, industrial gases, fertilizer and ammonia makers have some activity underway.

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