Hitachi Rail Italy S.p.A. is a multinational rolling stock manufacturer company based in
Pistoia
Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...
,
Italy. Formerly AnsaldoBreda S.p.A., a subsidiary of state-owned
Finmeccanica, the company was sold in 2015 to
Hitachi Rail of
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. After the deal was finalized, the current name was adapted in November 2015 to reflect the new ownership.
History
Early history: Ansaldo and Breda
Ansaldo
In 1853, the company ''
Gio. Ansaldo & C.'' was registered in
Genoa as a manufacturer of steam locomotives, rail rolling stock and steam engines.
The company was backed by
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, the powerful finance minister of
Piedmont-Sardinia, who aimed to reduce its dependence on imported trains and rolling stock.
Ansaldo entered the age of the steam locomotive in 1854 with its model FS113, also known as ''Sampierdarena''. During the
First world war, Ansaldo became a large supplier of weapons to the Italian army; facing insurmountable difficulties with post-war reconversion to civilian industry, the company was eventually nationalised in 1921. During the rest of the 1900s, the company diversified in different fields, especially power generation (
Ansaldo Energia) and nuclear research, while the rolling stock activities were reunited under Ansaldo Trasporti.
Breda
In 1886, Ernesto Breda founded in Milan ''
Società Italiana Ernesto Breda''.
By 1908, Breda's thousandth locomotive was built.
[ Breda entered the electric locomotive era in 1936 with the production of the FS Class ETR 200 series ]electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...
. In 1939 this type set the land speed record for rail vehicles at .[Maurizio Panconesi, ''La direttissima degli Appennini. La linea Bologna-Prato e le sue ferrovie di servizio'', Cortona, Calosci, 2002, , pp. 121-125.]
Similarly to Ansaldo, also Breda became a main weapon supplier to the Fascist regime, especially of artillery and airplanes. After the Second World War the company was facing bankruptcy, and was eventually nationalised in 1947. During the Italian economic miracle of the 1950-60s, Breda produced a highly successful commuter train, the FS Class ETR 300, several classes of railcars and locomotives, and diversified into defense (OTO Melara
OTO Melara was a subsidiary of the Italian company Finmeccanica, today Leonardo, active in the defence sector, with factories in Brescia and La Spezia. The Mod 56 pack howitzer, in service throughout the world, and the 76mm naval gun, ado ...
) and, especially, buses
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
. In the 1980s Breda participated in the consortium that designed the first Italian high-speed train, the FS Class ETR 500.
Merger and crisis (2001–2015)
In a massive restructuring effort, in 2001 the Italian state merged all the rolling stock activities of the then loss-making Ansaldo and Breda in a new company, ''AnsaldoBreda'',[Company](_blank)
AnsaldoBreda. Retrieved on 2009-07-17. that in turn became part of the Finmeccanica state-owned group. The new company won a string of big contracts across Europe and the United States; however, lacking adequate funding and capacity, AnsaldoBreda became infamous for its unreliable products and long delays, irreparably damaging the reputation of the company.
Controversies during the 2000s
In 1991, 100 4000 Series railcars from AnsaldoBreda were delivered to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. On 4 July 2010, after several incidents where the doors would open while the train was in motion, Metro removed the fleet for repairs until 20 July that year. On 17 November 2016 Metro discovered an error in which a 4000-series car would display an incorrect speed limit to a train operator while in manual mode (which is the only mode used since the June 2009 Washington Metro train collision). On 7 June 2017 Metro announced that the 4000-series cars would be fully retired and removed from service on 1 July 2017, and by that date all cars were taken out of service.
Delivery of 83 IC4
The IC4 is an inter-city rail train built by the Italian train manufacturer AnsaldoBreda for the trans-Great Belt routes of Danske Statsbaner (DSB), Denmark's national railway operator. Under DSB's 'Good trains for everyone' plan ('Gode tog til ...
AnsaldoBreda trainsets for the Danish State Railways
DSB, an abbreviation of ''Danske Statsbaner'' (, ''Danish State Railways''), is the largest Danish train operating company, and the largest in Scandinavia. While DSB is responsible for passenger train operation on most of the Danish railways, goo ...
DSB was originally planned for 2003-2006.
However, the last train was delivered only in 2013 and IC4 trains have seen many technical problems during their service. DSB announced in 2016 that the trains would be withdrawn from service from 2024.
After winning a big contract for the Dutch Belgium Fyra
Fyra (pronounced ) was an international high-speed rail service between the Netherlands and Belgium using the AnsaldoBreda V250 train. The service used the HSL-Zuid and HSL 4 railway lines to connect Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam, Antwer ...
project in 2004, nine V250
The Trenitalia ETR 700, originally NS Hispeed V250, is a high-speed train designed by Pininfarina and built by AnsaldoBreda originally for NS International and NMBS/SNCB to operate on the Fyra-service, a high speed train between Amsterdam and ...
train units were delivered to the Dutch partner NS over five years later than originally contracted. Soon after the trains went into service om the highspeed line between the Netherlands and Belgium, the V250 suffered a number of severe technical problems. The Fyra had a poor reputation for reliability. After a month of operations more than 5% of all trains were cancelled and less than 45% of them ran on schedule. On 31 May 2013, the Belgium partner NMBS/SNCB announced that they would exit the Fyra project and cancel the contract with AnsaldoBreda.
The City of Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
in Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
has ordered 40 one-directional Sirio trams which were to be put into service on the Gothenburg tram network during 2005 and onwards. The trams were delivered late and functioned poorly when put into traffic. Among reported problems were corrosion, excessive track damage caused by the trams, malfunctioning air conditioners inside the trams and poor ride quality. The City of Gothenburg therefore withheld a large part of the payment for a delivered tram until fully operational.[
The 32 two-directional trams delivered for the Oslo Tramway from 1999, called SL95, have met several difficulties with rust during snowy weather and the heavy weight necessitates much maintenance to streets and tracks, which make the trams expensive to operate. They are also considered to create more noise than necessary. The replacement of the trams will start in 2020 and the last trams will be taken out of service in 2024.
After 7 years on a 4 year project the region of Stockholm decided to cancel the contract on new signal system for the red metro line in Stockholm with Ansaldo on 1 billion SEK. The prepayment of hundreds of million SEK is currently up in arbitration court.
]
The Italian high-speed trains program
In spite of its overall terminal crisis, AnsaldoBreda managed to successfully participate in the Italian high-speed trains program until the very end of its existence. The ETR 500, that entered service in 1993, was continuously upgraded and run at a record speed of in the Monte Bibele tunnel between Florence and Bologna in 2009, setting a speed record for trains in a tunnel. A new generation high-speed train, the Frecciarossa 1000, was developed in a consortium with Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry ...
and entered service in 2015. On 26 February 2016, a Frecciarossa 1000 reportedly attained a peak speed of while traversing the Torino-Milano high speed line.
Hitachi Italy era (2015 to present)
Lacking the funds for a proper restructuring of its troubled subsidiary, Finmeccanica on 2 November 2015 announced the 'closing of transactions' covering the acquisition of AnsaldoBreda by Hitachi
() is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...
, together with Finmeccanica's 40% stake in Ansaldo STS.
Under the agreements signed on 24 February 2015, following a dividend distribution announced on 6 March, the purchase price for Finmeccanica's stake in Ansaldo STS has been set at €9.50 per share, amounting to a total of €761m. The total net consideration to be paid for AnsaldoBreda as a going concern, including property assets, amounts to around €30m. As a part of the deal Finmeccanica would keep the responsibility for some residual contracts.
On 2 November 2015 AnsaldoBreda changed its name to Hitachi Rail Italy.
Since being acquired by Hitachi, production of some British Rail Class 802 has been shifted to Hitachi Rail Italy's Pistoia
Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...
plant due to Hitachi Rail's Newton Aycliffe plant, being at capacity. The name changed in Hitachi Rail with headquarters in London and subsidiary in Pistoia. Production sites in Italy remain in Pistoia and Reggio Calabria
Reggio di Calabria ( scn, label= Southern Calabrian, Riggiu; el, label= Calabrian Greek, Ρήγι, Rìji), usually referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria. It has an estimated popul ...
.
Products
DMU and EMU
* Frecciarossa 1000
* FS Class ALe 642
* FS Class ETR 500
* IC4
The IC4 is an inter-city rail train built by the Italian train manufacturer AnsaldoBreda for the trans-Great Belt routes of Danske Statsbaner (DSB), Denmark's national railway operator. Under DSB's 'Good trains for everyone' plan ('Gode tog til ...
* NSB Class 72
NSB Class 72 ( no, NSB type 72) is a class of 36 electric multiple units built by AnsaldoBreda for the Norwegian State Railways (now Vy). Delivered between 2002 and 2005, the four-car units operate on the Oslo Commuter Rail and the Jæren Commuter ...
* Rock
* Treno ad alta frequentazione
* Treno Servizio Regionale
The Treno Servizio Regionale (TSR) are a series of double-decker EMUs used by the Lombard railway company Trenord for the commuter services around Milan, and particularly for the suburban lines.
Description
Each train is composed by several ...
* V250 (train)
Metro
* AnsaldoBreda Meneghino
The 900 Series, nicknamed and commonly known as "Meneghino" is an electric multiple unit manufactured by Italian companies Firema and AnsaldoBreda, designed for the Milan Metro.
Its nickname means ''of Milan'' in Italian.
The trains are made ...
* Hitachi Rail Italy Driverless Metro
The Hitachi Rail Italy Driverless Metro is a class of driverless electric multiple units and corresponding signaling system. Manufactured by Hitachi Rail Italy (formerly AnsaldoBreda) and Hitachi Rail STS (former name Ansaldo STS) in Italy, it i ...
Tram and light rail
* AnsaldoBreda T-68
The Firema T-68 was a model of light rail passenger vehicle first operated on the Manchester Metrolink network in England in 1992. Constructed by Firema specifically as a high-floor, articulated bi-directional tram to operate solely on the Ma ...
* Sirio
* SL95
* West Midlands Metro rolling stock
The West Midlands Metro is a passenger light rail line in the West Midlands conurbation in England, which opened in 1999. Its rolling stock consists of 21 CAF Urbos 3 trams which came into service in 2014/15, replacing the older T-69 trams which ...
* AnsaldoBreda P2550
The AnsaldoBreda P2550 is an articulated high-floor electric light rail vehicle manufactured by AnsaldoBreda (now Hitachi Rail Italy) for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Metro Rail system.
History
In 2001, th ...
Locomotives
* FS Class E.402
E.402A/B is a class of electric locomotives mainly used on medium speed passenger trains (max 200 km/h services like InterCity or Frecciabianca) by the Italian railway company FS Trenitalia.
History
After the positive experiences from the locom ...
* FS Class E.403
E.403 is a class of electric locomotives to be used on fast freight trains by the Italian railway company FS Trenitalia. It is designed and manufactured in Italy by AnsaldoBreda.
History
In the early 2000s Trenitalia developed plans to expand i ...
Main operators
Brazil
* Elettrotreno ETR 211 (Metrostar) for Fortaleza Metro running in the Linha Sul
China
* Sirio for Zhuhai Tram
Denmark
* Hitachi Rail Italy Driverless Metro
The Hitachi Rail Italy Driverless Metro is a class of driverless electric multiple units and corresponding signaling system. Manufactured by Hitachi Rail Italy (formerly AnsaldoBreda) and Hitachi Rail STS (former name Ansaldo STS) in Italy, it i ...
for Copenhagen Metro.
* diesel multiple unit IC4
The IC4 is an inter-city rail train built by the Italian train manufacturer AnsaldoBreda for the trans-Great Belt routes of Danske Statsbaner (DSB), Denmark's national railway operator. Under DSB's 'Good trains for everyone' plan ('Gode tog til ...
for DSB
Greece
* Sirio for Athens Tram.
* Tri-mode trains for TrainOSE long-distance services capable of operating with electrical supply, diesel engines or onboard batteries, to be delivered from 2022.
* 33 Hitachi Rail Italy Driverless Metro
The Hitachi Rail Italy Driverless Metro is a class of driverless electric multiple units and corresponding signaling system. Manufactured by Hitachi Rail Italy (formerly AnsaldoBreda) and Hitachi Rail STS (former name Ansaldo STS) in Italy, it i ...
for Metro Thessaloniki.
Italy
* high-speed ETR 500 for Trenitalia of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.
* high-speed Frecciarossa 1000 for Trenitalia of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.
* locomotive E.402
* locomotive E.403
* multiple unit Treno Servizio Regionale
The Treno Servizio Regionale (TSR) are a series of double-decker EMUs used by the Lombard railway company Trenord for the commuter services around Milan, and particularly for the suburban lines.
Description
Each train is composed by several ...
(TSR) for LeNORD.
* multiple unit Treno ad alta frequentazione (TAF) for Ferrovie Nord Milano (FNM).
* multiple unit Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...
for Trenitalia and FNM.
* three-car articulated units ETR 211 Metrostar for Circumvesuviana. The Circumvesuviana operate a fleet of twenty-six "Metrostar".
* Meneghino for Milan Metro.
*Leonardo
Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard
Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname.
The given name and surname originate ...
for Milan Metro.
* Hitachi Rail Italy Driverless Metro
The Hitachi Rail Italy Driverless Metro is a class of driverless electric multiple units and corresponding signaling system. Manufactured by Hitachi Rail Italy (formerly AnsaldoBreda) and Hitachi Rail STS (former name Ansaldo STS) in Italy, it i ...
for Milan Metro and Brescia Metro
The Brescia Metro ( it, Metropolitana di Brescia) is a rapid transit network serving Brescia, Lombardy, Italy. The network comprises a single line, having a length of and a total of 17 stations from ''Prealpino'' to ''Sant´Eufemia-Buffalora'', ...
.
* Sirio for '' Tramvie Elettriche Bergamasche'' of Bergamo
Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...
.
* Sirio for Rete tranviaria di Firenze of Florence.
* Sirio for Naples tramway network of Naples and for Sassari metro-tramway.
Morocco
* multiple unit TAF Z2M for ONCF. The ONCF operates a fleet of 24 trains.
Norway
* electric multiple unit NSB Class 72
NSB Class 72 ( no, NSB type 72) is a class of 36 electric multiple units built by AnsaldoBreda for the Norwegian State Railways (now Vy). Delivered between 2002 and 2005, the four-car units operate on the Oslo Commuter Rail and the Jæren Commuter ...
for Norwegian State Railways. The NSB operates a fleet of 36 trains.
* multiple unit SL95 for Oslo Tramway. Sporveien Trikken operates a fleet of 32 low-floor, articulated trams. Over the years, AnsaldoBreda has updated the equipment to meet the requirements and demands of the operator in Norway.
Spain
* multiple unit AnsaldoBreda series S7000 operates mainly on the Line 10 (Madrid Metro)
Line 10 of the Madrid Metro is a rapid transit line in Madrid that is actually the product of two formerly separate lines. Today the route begins at (San Sebastián de los Reyes) and ends at (Alcorcón). Passengers must transfer at between t ...
Madrid Metro. The Madrid Metro
The Madrid Metro (Spanish: ''Metro de Madrid'') is a rapid transit system serving the city of Madrid, capital of Spain. The system is the 14th longest rapid transit system in the world, with a total length of 293 km (182 mi). Its gro ...
operates a fleet of 37 trains.
* multiple unit AnsaldoBreda series S9000 for the Line 7 (Madrid Metro) Madrid Metro. The Madrid Metro
The Madrid Metro (Spanish: ''Metro de Madrid'') is a rapid transit system serving the city of Madrid, capital of Spain. The system is the 14th longest rapid transit system in the world, with a total length of 293 km (182 mi). Its gro ...
operates a fleet of 53 trains.
Sweden
* Sirio trams for Gothenburg tram network of Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
.
Turkey
* Sirio for Samsun Tram.
United Kingdom
* Midland Metro formerly operated a fleet of 16 two carriage T69 trams in Birmingham.[Boynton (2001), p.80.] The fleet was completely replaced after 14 years of service by CAF Urbos 3
The CAF Urbos is a family of trams, streetcars, and light rail vehicles built by CAF. The Basque manufacturer CAF previously manufactured locomotives, passenger cars, regional, and underground trains. In 1993, CAF started building trams for Met ...
trams in 2015.
* Manchester Metrolink commenced operations in 1992 using a passenger fleet of 26 T-68
The Firema T-68 was a model of light rail passenger vehicle first operated on the Manchester Metrolink network in England in 1992. Constructed by Firema specifically as a high-floor, articulated bi-directional tram to operate solely on the Ma ...
trams, with a further 6 (slightly modified) versions supplied by 2000. The entire fleet was gradually replaced by 2013.
* Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
ordered 36 train sets of British Rail Class 802 which were produced in HRI's Pistoia
Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...
facility.
United States
* multiple unit Breda CQ312 class for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority operates a fleet of 100 cars, car numbers 601-702, built by Breda, 2001–2005.
* multiple unit AnsaldoBreda Type 8 LRV for the MBTA's Green Line in Boston. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority operates a fleet of 95 LRV cars, alongside the MBTA's existing Kinki Sharyo type 7 cars. The Breda cars have been very difficult to maintain and are expected to be outlasted by their predecessors (built by Kinki Sharyo)
* multiple unit AnsaldoBreda LRV for the Blue and Green lines of Cleveland. The RTA Rapid Transit operates a fleet of 48 LRV cars.
* multiple unit AnsaldoBreda P2550 for the Los Angeles Metro L Line. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates a fleet of 50 LRV cars.
* multiple unit AnsaldoBreda A650 Breda A650
The A650 is an electric multiple unit subway car built for use on the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The cars were manufactured by the Italian company Breda at its Pistoia plant between 1988 and 1997 and are used on the Metro B and D Lines ...
. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates a fleet of 72 vehicles on the B Line and D Line.
* multiple unit AnsaldoBreda LRV2 and AnsaldoBreda LRV3 for the Muni Metro of San Francisco Municipal Railway. The Muni Metro operates a fleet of 151 LRV cars.
* multiple units for the Washington Metro
The Washington Metro (or simply Metro), formally the Metrorail,[Google Books search/preview ...](_blank)
. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority operates:
** 1000-Series—300 units originally built by Rohr, Inc., 290 units were refurbished by Breda; retired in 2017
** 2000-Series—76 units built
** 3000-Series—290 units built
** 4000-Series—100 units built; retired in 2017
* 136 cars for Metrorail (Miami-Dade County) - assembled in Medley
Medley or Medleys may refer to:
Sports
*Medley swimming, races requiring multiple swimming styles
* Medley relay races at track meets
Music
*Medley (music), multiple pieces strung together
People
*Medley (surname), list of people with this nam ...
by HRI subsidiary Hitachi Rail USA
* 78 cars for Baltimore Metro SubwayLink-Also assembled in Miami by Hitachi Rail USA
* 80 cars for Honolulu Area Rapid Transit (HART)
See also
*Ansaldo
Ansaldo Energia S.p.A. is an Italian power engineering company. It is based in Genoa, Italy. The absorbed parent company, Gio. Ansaldo & C., started in 1853. It was taken over by Leonardo S.p.A. In 2011, Leonardo S.p.A. sold 45% stake in An ...
*Breda
Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...
*Leonardo S.p.A.
Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the eighth ...
(also known as Finmeccanica)
References
Further reading
*Giovanni Cornolò, ''Una leggenda che corre. Breve storia dell'elettrotreno e dei suoi primati. ETR.200 - ETR.220 - ETR 240'', 2. ed., Salò, Editrice Trasporti su Rotaie, 1990,
*Stefano Garzaro, Angelo Nascimbene, ''FS-Italia. Elettrotreno ETR 400 "Pendolino"'', collana ''Monografie ferroviarie'' n. 6, Torino, Edizioni Elledi, 1982
External links
*
{{Hitachi
Gio. Ansaldo & C.
Società Italiana Ernesto Breda
Italian brands
Railway companies established in 2001
Italian companies established in 2001
Companies based in Tuscany
Companies based in Naples
Multinational companies headquartered in Italy
Hitachi Rail
Manufacturing companies established in 2001