Building high-speed trains, fast-tracking community development
People
Building high-speed trains, fast-tracking community development
Hornell, New York – population 8,000
“I haven’t been able to ride any Amtrak trains,” explains manufacturing specialist, Anastasia Didas. “I’d love to get the chance to ride NextGen Acela, our Avelia Liberty model, to see it in action with all its passengers. In your heart, you’re like, ‘I built that’.”
Anastasia and her co-workers at Hornell’s Plant 1 have built the first high-speed train manufactured in the United States with 95% domestically sourced components: the new Avelia Liberty, which rolled into service as Amtrak’s NextGen Acela on August 28.
She continues: “I get up at 3:45 every morning. I get up that early for the peace and quiet – drink my coffee, make my breakfast, read some books.
“My job is a lot of hard work, a lot of sweat. It’s rewarding. Something I built will take people up the Northeast Corridor every day. Alstom is the centre of Hornell. It’s always been a train town.”
In fact, Hornell, New York, has a 170-year history of train manufacturing. But times haven’t always been good in Hornell.
Lying in a rural area in the southwestern corner of New York State, Hornell has a population of about 8,000 inhabitants according to recent census figures. Known as the Maple City for the colourful trees that ran through town and carpeted the Canisteo Valley hillsides, Hornell enjoyed prosperity in the hundred years between the middle of the Nineteenth and the middle of the Twentieth Centuries.
Taking advantage of its favoured position on the New York and Erie railroad, Hornell became a perfect spot for rail repair yards. But like so many American towns and cities in the so-called Rust Belt, Hornell’s fortunes rose and fell with the industry that built it.
By 1960, the population of Hornell had halved. Rail’s influence was slashed by the rise of commercial trucking. Passenger rail service ceased completely by 1970. The final nail in the coffin was a hurricane in 1972 whose flooding destroyed 320 kilometres of railbed – the Erie line filed for bankruptcy.
Fortune changed again in the late 1990s when Alstom began operations in Hornell. It now has four plants. In 2020, production of the Avelia Liberty began in Plant 1. Today, Hornell is a case study in rural economic growth, a centre for rail excellence and home to the largest passenger rail manufacturing facility in the United States.
High speed, high capacity, high inclusivity
“I’m the third ‘Stanley Hall’ that worked in those shops,” says production line supervisor, Stanley Hall.
“My grandfather started in 1916, my father in the 1950s. I got hired in 1979. So for the better part of a hundred years, there’s been a Stanley Hall in the building. I’m going to be retiring soon. I’m going to miss it.
“When I look at those pictures [of the Avelia Liberty], I feel proud. I’ve been a part of this – and not just me, but the people I work with, my crew, my bosses, the people in Hornell.”
The new Avelia Liberty is designed for high-speed action, utilising the same technology as its Avelia Horizon siblings in France. To enable higher speeds in curves, it’s also equipped with our anticipative tilting technology.
Passenger experience has also evolved – the new trains offer 27% more seating than the current line while still being roomy and spacious. Extra capacity will enable Amtrak to generate more revenue along the busiest rail corridor in the country. Extra-wide seats are optimised ergonomically and include better passenger legroom.
The new Avelia is fully Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant and more accessible than ever, featuring high-precision level-access boarding with automatic alignment with the platform. Onboard, a priority seating area in each car, more spacious bathrooms and accessible areas in the cafe car make it easy for everyone to enjoy the ride.
A manufacturing revival – Hornell rolls into the future
Alstom is more than an employer for manufacturing specialist, Anne Latham, too. “I met my husband here back in 1988,” she explains.
“We started dating in 1993, and we’ve been together ever since. It’s the start of my whole family life here. It’s neat to think back on how far we’ve come over the last 30 years.
“One of the things that made this plant so successful is having people that learned good work ethic from having a small farm or small family business.
“I was in New York City and rode on a subway that said, ‘manufactured in Hornell, NY.’ It’s a great feeling to know we were a part of that. And now with high-speed rail. It’s a big deal to us.”
The Avelia Liberty project will increase Amtrak’s Acela fleet to 28 new trains. Alstom will also help Amtrak optimise the life-cycle cost of this new fleet through a 15-year-long Tech Support and Spare Supply Agreement (with an option for an additional 15 years), providing training, maintenance and support, fleet planning and quick-turnaround replacement parts. This is a great example of how our long-term contracts create long-term relationships with our customers.
The Avelia Liberty is an extraordinary chapter in Hornell’s history, but the story is still being written.
Alstom recently opened the 135,000 sq-ft Plant 4 in Hornell, investing $75 million in this brand-new facility. The plant is one of the few advanced manufacturing facilities in the United States capable of producing stainless steel car body shells for passenger rail vehicles. In fact, the plant represents a reshoring of this production back to the US.
Our colleagues in Hornell will be executing projects that will help move Americans from Chicago to Philadelphia to New York.
First up will be the production of 200 modern multilevel commuter rail cars for Metra, Chicago’s regional train system, a contract worth €650 million. The cars incorporate new design features to improve passenger experience, including a modernised interior, and multiple wide doors on each side of the cars reduce passenger boarding times and improve access to passenger areas.
Other projects include an over $700 million contract to produce 130 streetcars for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in Philadelphia, which will introduce Alstom’s Citadis light rail range to the US. The modern Citadis is multi-articulated, bidirectional, fully ADA (American with Disabilities Act) compliant, and features a low floor for easy boarding.
Finally, Alstom workers in Hornell will produce state-of-the-art M-9A vehicles to replace the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s oldest commuter cars in New York. The base contract, valued at $2.3 billion, will see the production of 316 commuter rail cars for the Long Island Rail-Road (LIRR) and Metro-North Railroad, the commuter rail divisions of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The M-9A promises a quieter, smoother, more reliable and accessible ride.
“Alstom isn’t just a job to a lot of people here. It’s a big part of Hornell. It’s really important for the company to be a part of our community.”
Family, community, society – our values, our responsibility
Manufacturing builds strong communities. With 95% domestically sourced components, manufactured by American union workers in Upstate New York, the Avelia Liberty project is also an investment in the people of Hornell.
Throw a stone in a pool of water and watch the waves ripple outward – Alstom’s investment has had a knock-on effect. The Avelia Liberty project has resulted in public and private investments worth over $200 million for the City of Hornell. This means new housing. New hotels and restaurants. It means the preservation of a local hospital.
More than 60% of the value of a high-speed train project flows to suppliers – beyond Hornell, we’re creating a sustainable and diverse US supply chain. Alstom has invested more than $590 million with 180 suppliers in 29 states, benefiting more than 137 communities across the country. An estimated 15,000 new jobs have been created across the US.
“Creating a positive impact on society” – accelerating local development wherever the company operates and supporting inspiring and transformative community projects – is quite literally written into our Corporate Social Responsibility strategy.
“I went back to school when I was 30,” says welder, Miranda Martin. “It’s never too late to go back to school. I started as a cleaner ten years ago, and I just kept working my way up to different jobs.
“I just come in and I weld all different things. There’s a lot to learn, so it’s always something different every day. As far as I know, I’m the first female welder in the plant. I hope more women join me here.
“Alstom isn’t just a job to a lot of people here. It’s a big part of Hornell. It’s really important for the company to be a part of our community.”
