Hitachi Rail to Locate Factory in Washington County, Maryland

Hitachi Rail has announced that Washington County, ­­Maryland, will be the location of its state-of-the-art $70 million factory that will build the new fleet of 8000-series railcars for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro).

In a major expansion of Hitachi Rail’s presence in the US, the new site will manufacture modern railcars for the Washington DC region and will have the capacity to serve the wider North American railway market.

Hitachi Rail has taken the strategic decision to make its new facility a central manufacturing hub for its Americas business. The factory will develop a skilled new workforce, create a broad local supply chain and bring extensive economic value to the region.

The site in Washington County, Maryland, is well located to serve the Washington metro area – and is 90 minutes from Metro’s Greenbelt Rail Yard, where the completed trains will be delivered. An important advantage of the location is that the Greater Hagerstown region is a major center for logistics and has excellent connections to the Northeastern United States and beyond.

Having acquired the plot, near the growing Hopewell Valley industrial park in Washington County, Maryland, the next stage will involve preparing the land for construction. Once the process of grading the land is finished in the fall, the construction of the factory will begin in earnest, with the site scheduled to be operational in winter 2023/24.

-via Press Release

This article was posted on: March 21, 2022