On Friday, Bombardier Transportation inaugurated a new, state-of-the-art monorail vehicle manufacturing facility in Hortolândia – São Paulo, Brazil.
The new production site design and construction is based on technology transferred from Bombardier’s manufacturing and engineering hubs here in Kingston – where one of Brazil’s trains will also be built and tested – as well as facilities in St. Bruno, Quebec and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Brazilian plant represents an investment of $15 million USD and will serve the fast-growing market in Brazil as well as export opportunities in Latin America and around the world.
It will create 250 new jobs directly related to railway vehicle production and approximately 500 indirect jobs based on increased activity in Bombardier’s local supplier base.
The Hortolândia Monorail manufacturing site was constructed in only 18 months and will begin its manufacturing activities immediately, with the first completed monorail cars expected to leave the assembly line later this year.
An inauguration ceremony was held at the new site where André Navarri, President and Chief Operating Officer of Bombardier Transportation, told the 100 guest in attendance “This new monorail manufacturing site represents the second phase of Bombardier’s industrial expansion initiated in 2009 that aims to triple our number of employees in Brazil to 600 people and to quadruple the industrial area in Hortolândia.”
Navarri added, “The new high capacity BOMBARDIER INNOVIA Monorail 300 system we are building for São Paulo is game changing because it offers a transportation capacity similar to a metro, yet the light infrastructure required reduces the construction price and the implementation schedule by up to one half, bringing quality of life benefits to citizens sooner and more cost effectively. We are certain that once service operation starts, it will be acknowledged as one of the best mass transit solutions ever built.”
The INNOVIA Monorail 300 system represents Bombardier’s newest transportation system technology. It is cost effective to introduce, without requiring major infrastructure or civil works, and offers transport capacity of up to 48,000 passengers per hour per direction in modern ride comfort.
Bombardier’s new manufacturing site is set to fulfill orders in Brazil as well as in the Latin America region. Its first order is the delivery of 54 seven-car INNOVIA Monorail 300 trains (378 cars) for Metro São Paulo.
To ensure a successful and faster ramp-up of the project, one train (7 cars) will be produced and tested by Bombardier at the Kingston testing facility.
The remaining Monorail cars will be produced at the new site in Brazil.
With a capcity of more than 500,000 users each day, the new INNOVIA Monorail 300 system will reduce travel times from almost two hours down to approximately 50 minutes between the stations Vila Prudente and Cidade Tiradentes on Metro São Paulo’s Line 2.
The first section of the new line, connecting the stations of Vila Prudente and Oratorio is expected to begin passenger service by the end of 2013, followed by a second section in 2014 and the line completed by 2016.
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Image: Bombardier Innovia Monorail 300
