05.09.07
Stadler Rail: Grand opening of new assembly plant in Siedlce
First deliveries in June 2008 for Mazovia and Silesia – steady increase in production planned
In Siedlce today, Peter Spuhler, the owner and CEO of the Stadler Rail Group, officially announced the grand opening of Stadler’s assembly plant in the presence the local authorities, politicians and the business community. 70 employees of the plant are currently working on the assembly of 14 FLIRT trains (Flinker Leichter Innovativer Regional Triebzug - Fast, Light, Innovative, Regional Train), ordered by the Mazovia and Silesia provinces. Stadler Rail Group has invested approximately EUR 4 million in the modernization of the plant in Siedlce. Its current manufacturing capacity enables the assembly of one rail vehicle per month, but production capacity is expected to increase with successive orders. The opening of the assembly plant in Siedlce is an expression of the Stadler Rail Group’s opinion that Poland is the perfect location for production, as well as being a major market for its rail vehicles. Work on establishing Stadler Rail Group’s plant in Siedlce started in June 2006. At that time, Stadler won a tender for the delivery of 14 FLIRT trains to the Mazovia and Silesia provinces, in which other international rolling stock producers also took part. As a result of close cooperation with the Polish authorities and local partners, the company was able to rent and modernize a facility in Siedlce owned by PKP. This enabled the company to assemble the first trains ordered by the Mazovia and Silesia provinces. The ambitious schedule for the growth of the plant adopted by Stadler is being pursued as planned. The modernization of the plant started in December 2006, only five months after the agreement with the Mazovia and Silesia authorities was signed. On 22 February 2007, the cornerstone was laid under the new assembly plant, and construction and modernization works were completed by the end of May. In parallel with the modernization works, Stadler recruited employees and trained them in Switzerland, which meant that the company was able to commence assembly of the first FLIRT vehicles in June 2007. So far, the company has invested EUR 4 million in the modernization of the plant in Siedlce and has created 70 jobs. The assembly of rail vehicles takes place on 16 workstations in a 100-metre long and 50-metre wide manufacturing hall. The process includes all works related to the installation of the trains’ interiors, roof assembly, external fitting and electronic subassemblies. Single carriages are then coupled together into one motor train and started by technicians at the plant. After a successful start up and test drive, the FLIRT vehicles are supplied to the buyer. The first two trains assembled in Siedlce will be delivered in June 2008, and the remaining trains ordered by the Mazovia and Silesia provinces will be delivered in successive months up to the end of 2008. As the first regions to order the trains in Poland, the Mazovia and Silesia provinces will join such places as Basel and Wiesental in Switzerland, South Tirol in Austria, Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany, Gargano in Italy, Budapest in Hungary and Helsinki in Finland, where the FLIRT trains have been ordered since their Swiss debut in 2002. “Poland has a rich railway tradition, a fast-developing market and highly qualified workforce. We see great potential for comfortable, energy-efficient urban and regional passenger transportation in this country, and we are Europe’s specialists in this area. Now that our assembly plant in Siedlce is open for business, passengers in Poland will be able to enjoy our FLIRT trains, while Stadler is in an even better position to realize orders from Poland and neighbouring countries,” said Peter Spuhler, majority shareholder and Stadler Group CEO Stadler Rail. The opening of Stadler’s assembly plant in Siedlce was preceded by a promotional tour of Poland of Stadler’s FLIRT/TILO train. The train was presented for the first time in Poland on Thursday, 30 August in Katowice. From there it travelled onwards to Wroc³aw, where its second official presentation took place. Poznañ was the penultimate stop of the FLIRT/TILO promotional tour of Poland. In the morning of Wednesday, 5 September, the train departed from Warszawa Wschodnia station for Siedlce, where the official grand opening of Stadler’s Polish assembly plant took place. Stadler Rail Group, the system supplier of customer-specific solutions for rail vehicle construction, incorporates Stadler Altenrhein AG, Stadler Bussnang AG, and Stadler Winterthur AG in Switzerland in addition to the two German locations, Stadler Pankow GmbH in Berlin and Stadler Weiden GmbH in Bavaria, and plants in Pusztaszabolcs in Hungary and Siedlce in Poland. The Group employs a workforce of approximately 2,350 around the world. The best known vehicle series from the Stadler Rail Group are the globally successful GTW articulated railcar (429 trains sold), the Regio Shuttle RS1 (354 trains sold) and the Fast Light Innovative Regional Turbo-train FLIRT (335 trains sold). Stadler has also successfully established itself in the streetcar and tram market with the product series Variobahn (161 vehicles sold) and the newly developed Tango (90 vehicles sold). Furthermore, Stadler manufactures passenger carriages and diesel-electric locomotives and is also a world leading manufacturer of rack rail vehicles. In November 2006, Stadler Rail AG Group received the 2006 SBB Supplier Achievement Award from the Swiss SBB railways, as the best supplier of rail vehicles. For further information, please contact: Stadler Rail Group, Vincenza Trivigno, Secretary General, Mobile: +41 79 430 69 68, Fax: +41 71 626 21 28, www.stadlerrail.ch, Questia Sp. z o.o., Communications Management Consultants, Hanna Dymek, Agnieszka Podraza, Phone: +48 22 623 07 00
- Downloads
- 2007-09-05_EN.pdf (English)