Company type | Public |
---|---|
SIX: SRAIL | |
Industry | Train manufacturing |
Founded | 1942 |
Founder | Ernst Stadler [1] |
Headquarters | , |
Key people |
|
Revenue | SFr 3.6 billion [3] (2023) |
Owner |
|
Number of employees | 13,944 [3] (2023) |
Website | stadlerrail |
Stadler Rail AG is a Swiss manufacturer of railway rolling stock, with an original emphasis on regional train multiple units and trams, but moving also into underground, high speed, intercity and sleeper trains. It also produces niche products, such as being one of the last European manufacturers of rack railway rolling stock. Stadler Rail is headquartered at its place of origin in Bussnang, Switzerland. Stadler Rail employed 13,900 employees by 2023.
The company consolidates fifty subsidiaries in 23 countries [2] including Algeria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Belarus and the United States, and upcoming joint ventures with INKA in Indonesia and Medha Servo Drives in India. Stadler Rail employed approximately 6,100 employees by 2012, including 2,750 in Switzerland, 1,200 in Germany, 1,000 in Belarus, 400 in Hungary and 400 in Poland. [4] By 2023, this had increased to 13,900 employees. [3]
Stadler Rail traces its origins back to an engineering office established by Ernst Stadler (1908–1981) in 1942. [5] Three years later, the company began to manufacture its first locomotives, building both battery-electric and diesel types. Throughout the majority of Stadler Rail's existence, it operated as a relatively small family-owned business entirely based in Switzerland that traditionally focused on manufacturing highly customised rail vehicles for its clients. [5] The customer base were typically within relatively niche markets, such as narrow gauge and mountain railway operators, rather than those operating conventional mainline railways. After Ernst Stadler died in 1981, his second wife, Irma (c. 1923–2020), took over as CEO. [6] Stadler Rail remained a relatively small rolling stock manufacturer even through to the 1990s; by the mid-1990s, Stadler reportedly had only 100 employees. [5]
Around 1984, Stadler Rail decided to embark on the manufacture of passenger rolling stock for the first time. [5] In 1987, Peter Spuhler, an in-law relative of the Stadler family through his marriage to one of Ernst Stadler's granddaughters, joined the company and subsequently took over as CEO from Irma Stadler in 1989. Spuhler then decided to expand the business via the launch of new products, as well as the acquisition of two other Swiss factories that built specialist rail vehicles for rack-and-pinion and narrow gauge railways. Stadler Rail experienced a considerable uptick in business during the latter years of 1990s. [5] Its customer base continued to expand year after year over the following two decades to become one of the fastest growing and most innovative train manufacturing companies operating in Europe. Stadler Rail has become a serious competitor in several categories to traditional major rolling stock companies, such as Alstom and Siemens, and has successfully secured several major orders from the incumbent train operating companies of several nations. [5]
In 1999, Stadler Rail took a 67% shareholding in a joint venture with Adtranz to manufacture the Regio-Shuttle RS1. [5] [7] However, following Adtranz's acquisition by Bombardier in 2001, European Union regulators insisted on the divestiture of the regional and tram product lines. As a consequence, Stadler Rail took 100% ownership of the Pankow factory in Berlin, becoming its first manufacturing base in Germany, that same year. Production of the RS1 has continued, becoming the market leading tram in the nation. [5]
Perhaps the company's most successful product has been the FLIRT (Fast Light Innovative Regional Train) family, the range includes highly diverse configurations to suit different needs, from smaller regional units to luxurious intercity trainsets, as well as broad gauge versions for Finland and former Soviet Union nations. [5] During 2004, Stadler Rail delivered the first trainset to the Swiss Federal Railways. By 2019, in excess of 1,400 FLIRTs have been ordered by operators in 16 countries spread across Europe, the United States, Algeria and Azerbaijan. [5]
To facilitate an expanded order book and wider customer base, the company has rapidly expanded its production capabilities. To serve the Central and Eastern European market alone, during 2005, a new assembly plant was built in Hungary, while another was completed in Poland in the following year; six years later, a third manufacturing site was established in Belarus. [5] By late 2019, the firm reportedly employed in excess of 7,000 employees at various locations spread across 20 countries. Each year, hundreds of rail vehicles, including trams, locomotives and coaches, are completed by the firm. [5] In addition to its manufacturing efforts, considerable business is derived from contracted maintenance and refurbishment programmes, which Stadler Rail provides to operators throughout Europe, the United States, the Middle East and the North African regions. [5]
The company has also grown via numerous acquisitions, including the Swiss company Winpro AG based in Winterthur in 2005, Voith Rail Services of the Netherlands in 2013, and Vossloh Rail Vehicles España S.A. of Valencia during 2015. They have been integrated into the wider Stadler Rail organisation, broadening the range of products and services on offer. [5]
For many years, Peter Spuhler has served as the company's chief executive officer (CEO), as well as holding a major stake in the business. [5] According to Peter Jenelten, Stadler Rail's Executive Vice-President for Marketing and Sales, has credited the business' relatively lean structure as having enabled very rapid decision-making and reducing product's time to market, which in turn has been an important selling point for its customers. Railway industry periodical Rail Magazine has claimed that Stadler Rail has been a major beneficiary of customer dissatisfaction with the dominant market competitors, particularly in terms of delivery and certification issues. [5]
In 2014, Stadler Rail announced the formation of a joint venture with Azerbaijan-based company International Railway Distribution LLC to manufacture rolling stock in the nation. One month prior, Stadler had received a SFr120 million contract to produce 30 sleeper and dining cars. [8] Rolling stock originally intended for Russia has also been resold to Azerbaijan and neighbouring Georgia. [5]
Stadler Rail had traditionally avoided major involvement with the British railway customer base, which it has claimed was due to the unfavourable complexity of the regulatory environment. [5] However, in 2017, management decided to embark on a decisive push into Britain, both to acquire market share amongst its rail operators and to establish new manufacturing and servicing facilities. It quickly secured a £610 million order from Abellio Greater Anglia for its FLIRT family, leading to 378 vehicles conforming to the UK's restrictive loading gauge that were built in Bussnang. [5] Further orders in the UK market have included Glasgow Subway's order for 17 underground trains, operating via an automated driverless system, it is a first for Stadler. Another major order came from Merseytravel for bespoke electric trains for Liverpool's Merseyrail commuter rail system. [5] It has also supplied trains and tram-trains to Transport for Wales Rail.
In April 2019, Stadler Rail was listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, reducing Spuhler's stake in the company to 40%. [9] Prior to the listing, Spuhler had owned 80% of the business's share capital, while RAG-Stiftung held a further 10%, and the remaining 10% was divided amongst several senior employees at the firm. [10]
In recent years, the light rail and metro sectors have become increasingly important customers. [5] Various operators in Germany, Norway, and Britain have adopted the company's Variobahn trams, while Stadler Rail received its first contract for underground trains during 2015. In December 2015, the firm’s had a huge order via a joint venture with Siemens Mobility for up to 1,380 vehicles for Berlin's S-Bahn, the last of which are to be delivered by 2023. During 2019, Stadler Rail was reportedly making efforts to capitalise on smaller operators, driven by trends towards regionalisation and open-access operation, to secure business for its railcars, light rail vehicles and multiple units. [5]
Stadler has a large manufacturing facility in Fanipaĺ, Belarus. Following the disputed 2020 Belarusian presidential elections and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company came under pressure to reduce its exposure in those countries. By June 2022, electronic parts used to assemble rail equipment are no longer deliverable to Fanipaĺ due to international sanctions against Belarus following the forced diversion of Ryanair Flight 4978. In response, Stadler moved equipment and personnel to Poland, Switzerland and the US to make up for that loss. The board of directors decided to keep the site and stressed that the company has to follow supranational decisions by international organisations such as the OECD, UN and EU but their commitment is towards the people working at the site, stating that Stadler "serves the public not dictators". [11] [12] The subsidiaries OOO Stadler (Moskau) and Stadler Reinickendorf (Berlin) were liquidated in 2022. [2]
Stadler markets a range of standard modular vehicles, including:
Since purchasing Vossloh España in 2016, Stadler Rail have additionally manufactured the following former Vossloh designs:
Stadler has also built a number of custom vehicles for specific customers, in some cases including elements of their standard designs. These include:
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also generally classed as DMUs. Diesel-powered units may be further classified by their transmission type: diesel–mechanical DMMU, diesel–hydraulic DHMU, or diesel–electric DEMU.
A railcar is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach, with a driver's cab at one or both ends. Some railway companies, such as the Great Western, termed such vehicles "railmotors".
Adtranz was a multi-national rail transportation equipment manufacturer with facilities concentrated in Europe and the US. The company, legally known as ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation, was created in 1996 as a joint venture between ABB and Daimler-Benz to combine their rail equipment manufacturing operations. In 1999, DaimlerChrysler bought ABB's shares and changed the company's official name to DaimlerChrysler Rail Systems. The company was acquired by Bombardier in 2001, which merged it into its Bombardier Transportation division, which became the largest rail equipment manufacturer in the world at the time, and was ultimately acquired by Alstom in 2021.
Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, with headquarters in Berlin, Germany. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Bombardier Transportation had many regional offices, production and development facilities worldwide. It produced a wide range of products including passenger rail vehicles, locomotives, bogies, propulsion and controls. In February 2020, the company had 36,000 employees, and 63 manufacturing and engineering locations around the world. Formerly a division of Bombardier Inc., the company was acquired by French manufacturer Alstom on 29 January 2021.
Vossloh AG is a rail technology company based in Werdohl in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The SDAX-listed group has achieved sales of around €930 million in 2016 and, as of 2017, had more than 4,000 employees.
The Stadler GTW is an articulated railcar for local transport made by Stadler Rail of Switzerland. GTW stands for Gelenktriebwagen.
Stadler FLIRT is a passenger multiple unit trainset made by Stadler Rail of Switzerland. The baseline design of FLIRT is an electric multiple unit articulated trainset that can come in units of two to twelve cars with two to six motorized axles. The maximum speed is 200 km/h (125 mph). Standard floor height is 57 cm, but 78 cm high floors are also available for platform heights of 76 cm.
Stadler Rail Valencia SAU is a Spanish company, mainly producing products for the railway industry, subsidiary of Stadler Rail.
Alpha Trains is a rolling stock leasing company operating in the European Union and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) regions of mainland Europe.
Diesel multiple units and railcars are trains, usually with passenger accommodation, that do not require a locomotive. Railcars can be single cars, while in multiple units cars are marshalled together with a driving position either end. As of December 2010, 23 percent of the rail passenger cars used on Network Rail are part of a diesel multiple unit.
The Class 68 is a type of mainline mixed traffic diesel-electric locomotive manufactured by Stadler Rail Valencia for Direct Rail Services (DRS) in the United Kingdom. The design is derived from the Stadler Eurolight, and Stadler's product name for this variant is the UKLight.
The Stadler EuroDual is a series of dual power, electro-diesel locomotive by Stadler Rail Valencia. Unlike traditional dual mode locomotives, fitted with relatively low-powered diesel engines for 'last mile' movements only, vehicles are typically furnished with power units more comparable to that of mainline diesel locomotives.
Beacon Rail is a rolling stock company (ROSCO) based in the United Kingdom. Its primary business is the leasing of locomotives and rolling stock to various train operating companies (TOCs).
The Stadler Citylink is a series of tram-trains manufactured by Stadler Rail at its Valencia factory since 2011. The design was introduced by Vossloh España before their takeover by Stadler Rail in 2015. They are currently used in Germany, Hungary, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom, with more on order in Austria. Stadler opened a new factory in the United States in 2016, which is in the process of building up to 80 Citylink vehicles for service in Salt Lake City beginning in 2028.
The City-Bahn Chemnitz is a railway company which operates tram-train and regional rail services in and around Chemnitz, in Saxony, Germany. The tram-train services run both on the railway network and the urban tram network in Chemnitz. City-Bahn Chemnitz was founded on March 10, 1997.
The British Rail Class 755 FLIRT is a class of bi-mode multiple unit passenger train built by Stadler Rail for Greater Anglia. Part of the FLIRT modular train family, the trains first entered service on 29 July 2019 and are used on regional and local services throughout East Anglia, as well as some intercity services between Norwich and London.
The British Rail Class 745 FLIRT is a class of electric multiple unit passenger train, built by Stadler as part of the FLIRT family. The class is built for Greater Anglia for use on their inter-city services and the Stansted Express services. They first entered service on 8 January 2020, after being constructed between 2018 and 2020 in Switzerland.
The British Rail Class 231 is a class of eleven diesel-electric multiple units of the FLIRT family, which have been built for Transport for Wales by Swiss rolling stock manufacturer Stadler Rail. The first units entered service on 18 January 2023.
The British Rail Class 756 FLIRT is a class of tri-mode multiple units built for Transport for Wales Rail by Swiss rolling stock manufacturer Stadler Rail. They are closely related to the Class 755 bi-mode units delivered by Stadler to Greater Anglia between 2018 and 2020, which can be powered either by overhead electric lines or on-board diesel generators. The Class 756 units also carry batteries as an additional source of traction power.
Transport for Wales Rail Limited, branded as Transport for Wales and TfW Rail, is a Welsh publicly owned train operating company, a subsidiary of Transport for Wales (TfW), a Welsh Government-owned company. It commenced operations of the day to day services of the Wales & Borders franchise on 7 February 2021, as an operator of last resort, succeeding KeolisAmey Wales.
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