Bombardier Transportation - History

History

Bombardier Transportation's first order for mass transit rolling stock was in 1974 for the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) (Montreal transport authority) to build metro trains for the Montreal Metro.

The original core of the Transportation group was formed with the purchase of Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) in 1975. With that purchase Bombardier acquired MLW's LRC (Light, Rapid, Comfortable) tilting train design which it produced in the 1980s. The group also purchased Hawker Siddeley Canada. MLW was later sold to General Electric in 1988. GE ended railcar operations in Canada in 1993. Bombardier Transportation continues to operate the railcar operations in Thunder Bay. In 1987, Bombardier bought the assets of US railcar manufacturers Budd and Pullman-Standard.

In the late 1980s Bombardier Transportation gained a manufacturing presence in Europe with the acquisition of a 45% share in BN Constructions Ferroviaires et Métalliques (with its principal site in Bruges, Belgium) in 1986, and the acquisition of ANF-Industries (with its principal site in Crespin, France, near the Belgian border) in 1989. In 1990 Procor Engineering Ltd. of Horbury near Wakefield, UK; a manufacturer of bodyshells, was acquired, and renamed Bombardier Prorail.

In 1991 the grouping Bombardier Eurorail was formed consisting of the company's European subsidiaries; BN, ANF-Industrie, Prorail, and BWS.

In 1995 Waggonfabrik Talbot KG in Aachen, Germany, and in 1998 Deutsche Waggonbau AG (DWA), and Ateliers de constructions mécaniques de Vevey in Vevey, Switzerland, were acquired. DWA encompassed the major portion of the railway equipment industry of the former East Germany ("Kombinat Schienenfahrzeugbau") with its principal sites in Bautzen and Görlitz.

In 2001 Bombardier Transportation acquired ADtranz from DaimlerChrysler, and became by many measurements the Western world's largest rail-equipment manufacturer. The takeover was approved by the EU competition commission subject to a number of minor clauses including the divestment of Bombardier's stake in Adtranz/Stadler joint venture Stadler Pankow GmbH (sold to Stadler Rail), and an agreement to retain Kiepe as a supplier, and ELIN as a partner for a number of years after the acquisition. The addition of ADtranz made Bombardier a manufacturer of locomotives along with its existing product lines of passenger carriages, multiple-unit trains, and trams. With the acquisition of ADtranz, Bombardier gained competence in the electrical propulsion components business.

After the Adtranz acquisition in 2001 Bombardier Transportation published its core manufacturing strategy for Europe: three sites for bogie manufacture were to be at Siegen in Germany, Derby (UK) and at the ex-ANF plant in Crespin (France). Vehicle body manufacturer was to be done at Bautzen and Gorlitz (Germany), at the former Kalmar Verkstad plant (Sweden), at the Bombardier's Derby carriage plant, and the former BN Constructions Ferroviaries et Métalliques in Bruges. For final assembly the company chose the former Waggonfabrik Talbot plant in Aachen and the former LEW Hennigsdorf (nr. Berlin) in Germany, the former Sorefame plant in Amadora, Portugal, and its plants in Derby (UK), Crespin (France), Bruge (Belgium), Kalmar (Sweden), and Pratteln, Switzerland. Additionally a number of plants would have specialised manufacturing roles, including Česká Lípa (Czech Republic) and the Pafawag facility in Poland which would supply parts and welded structures, and sites in Vienna (Austria) and Bautzen (Germany) which would specialise in LRV (light rail vehicle) manufacture whilst double deck trains for the German market would be manufactured in Gorlitz. Other sites had their work mandate reduced in scope, or were closed.

In 2004 due to overcapacity in the European passenger train industry Bombardier announced a restructuring program resulting in the closure of several plants; in the UK the bogie production site at Pride Park, Derby, as well as Bombardier Prorail (Wakefield) and a maintenance facility in Doncaster were closed; in mainland Europe the plants at Pratteln, Kalmar, Amadora were to be closed, as well as plants in Ammendorf and Vetschau in eastern Germany which had been labelled for closure in 2001.

In late 2012 Bombardier announced the closure of the Bombardier Talbot plant in Aachen, and a reduction in workforce in the whole transportation division of 1200 people.