Hitachi Rail Opens Train Manufacturing Factory in Maryland

Hitachi Rail has opened a new 100 million USD train manufacturing site in Hagerstown, Maryland as part of its expansion across North America.

The 307,000 sq. ft. facility has been designed to be carbon neutral from the outset, operating with zero landfill waste and powered by renewable energy, including on-site solar generation.

The site will be capable of producing up to 20 railcars per month for transit systems in the Washington DC area, Baltimore and Philadelphia, with orders exceeding 600 railcars already in place.

Over 30 million USD has been invested in digital technologies at the factory. These include real-time monitoring of manufacturing and supply chains, additive manufacturing for spares and tooling, and AI-enabled systems to support continuous improvement processes. The site will also host a customer experience centre to demonstrate wider Hitachi Group digital solutions such as the HMAX platform, which applies AI to optimise railway assets.

The facility is expected to employ 460 people directly and sustain around 1,300 jobs in total through supply chain and related activity. Hitachi estimates the economic contribution of the factory to be approximately 350 million USD annually for the region spanning Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia.

The factory was opened on 8 September by senior Hitachi executives.

Toshiaki Tokunaga, President & CEO, Hitachi, Ltd. said:

I would like to sincerely thank our customers, partners, Hitachi Group colleagues, and community leaders in the state of Maryland for their support in launching this new factory. The Hagerstown factory showcases the unique strengths of the Hitachi Group by integrating manufacturing expertise and digital and AI technologies across a wide range of our business domains as True One Hitachi. We will deliver ever greater value to our customers and society by addressing infrastructure and mobility challenges in the United States.

The Hagerstown facility was developed with input from Hitachi Digital, GlobalLogic, Hitachi Digital Services and Hitachi Research & Development. It is part of a wider growth strategy by Hitachi Group in North America, which now accounts for roughly one sixth of its global revenues.