| Formerly | Concarril |
|---|---|
| Founded | April 14, 1952[1] (as Concarril) |
| Defunct | 1992  |
| Successor | Bombardier-Concarril SA de CV and (later) Bombardier Transportation México |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | Rolling stock, includingfreight cars,locomotives and passengerrail cars (includingsubway/metro cars andlight rail vehicles) |
Number of employees | 3,000 (1991)[2] |
Bombardier Transportation México is asubsidiary company ofBombardier Transportation located inCiudad Sahagún, Mexico.[3]
Formed in 1952[1] (some sources say 1954),[2][4][5] with the nameConstructora Nacional de Carros de FerrocarrilSA (English:National Railway Car Manufacturing Company), known asConcarril, or less commonly asCNCF,[6] was agovernment-owned majorrail vehicle manufacturer. From the 1950s through 1991, it manufactured a wide variety ofpassenger andfreight cars, as well aslocomotives. It was owned by theMexican government. After accumulating too muchdebt, it ceased operating in December 1991 and was sold toBombardier Transportation in April 1992 for aroundUS$68 million.[2][7] At that time, it was the largest manufacturer of railwayrolling stock in Mexico.[2] Becoming a subsidiary of Bombardier, it took the name Bombardier-Concarril SA de CV, and production resumed at the Ciudad Sahagún facilities. In 2004, the company was renamed Bombardier Transportation México.
Constructora Nacional de Carros de FerrocarrilSA (English:National Railway Car Manufacturing Company), more commonly known asConcarril, was established in 1952[1] (some sources say 1954),[2][4][5] as arail vehicle manufacturer owned by theMexican government. It manufactured a wide variety ofpassenger andfreight cars, as well aslocomotives.
TheFerrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM, or NdeM), the country's government-owned railroad company until the 1990s, purchased large numbers of railroad cars from Concarril, including various freight and passenger cars. The latter includedsleeping cars in addition to conventional coaches.Dining cars were not one of its regular products; it built its first such car in 1989, for FNM.[8] The company also built locomotives for FNM and other railroads, and undertook rebuilding (or refurbishment) work on older locomotives and coaches.
Passenger railway cars built by Concarril forurban rail transit use includedsubway/metro cars for theMexico City Metro andlight rail vehicles (LRVs) for theGuadalajara light rail system, theMonterrey Metro and theXochimilco Light Rail line ofMexico City'sSTE.[3][9] The company made both steel-wheeled and rubber-tired subway cars for Mexico City.[4][5] It also supplied subway cars to theSantiago Metro, in Chile[3] (specifically theNS-88 trainset as a replacement for anNS-74 train that was destroyed during a terrorist attack in 1986);[citation needed] that was part of an effort by the Mexican government in 1990 to boost exports of manufactured goods, which also encompassed a planned sale of 200 Concarril-built freight cars to Venezuela.[10]
At the time of its sale in 1992 toBombardier Transportation, Concarril was the largest manufacturer of railwayrolling stock in Mexico.[2]
In spring 1992, Concarril was acquired from the Mexican government byBombardier of Canada,[2][5][11][12] becoming part ofBombardier Transportation, as a subsidiary namedBombardier-Concarril SA. Production resumed later the same year. For some types of vehicles, Bombardier initially maintained use of the same designs as had been used by Concarril, such as for light rail cars for the Monterrey Metro, where a batch of 23 built in 1990 by Concarril and a batch of 25 built in 1992–93 by Bombardier were described by one writer as being "almost identical".[9]
In 1998,the Greenbrier Companies, ofLake Oswego, Oregon, entered into ajoint venture with Bombardier to manufacture freight railroad cars at Bombardier'sCiudad Sahagún plant.[4] The partnership was named Greenbrier-Concarril LLC, and Greenbrier subsidiary Gunderson managed the U.S. company's involvement, asGunderson-ConcarrilSA de CV. Production includedboxcars,flatcars andgondola cars.[13] Production of passenger equipment and other non-freight stock continued under the name Bombardier-Concarril, which subsidiary continued to be 100% Bombardier-owned.[14]
In December 2004, Greenbrier purchased Bombardier's 50-percent interest in Gunderson-Concarril and became sole owner of Greenbrier-Concarril LLC and Gunderson-Concarril SA, manufacturing freight cars only.[15] Bombardier retained ownership of the factory facilities and leased them to Greenbrier/Gunderson.[16] Production of passenger railroad equipment continued to be undertaken by Bombardier Transportation (now as subsidiaryBombardier Transportation México, formerly Bombardier-Concarril), using another part of the former-Concarril factory in Ciudad Sahagún.[16]
Bombardier won contracts for two of the largest rail vehicle contracts in North America, 204Flexity Outlook and 182Flexity Freedom streetcars, for theToronto Transit Commission, andMetroLinx, a regional transit authority in theGreater Toronto Area.[11] Bombardier split construction of these vehicles between its Ciudad Sahagún factory and one of its factories inThunder Bay. Welding the basic chassis was to take place in the Ciudad Sahagún factory, before shipping them to its facility in Thunder Bay for final assembly.. Bombardier fell years behind in delivery of these vehicles. Reports in the Canadian press repeated claims that the workers in the Thunder Bay plant that the work done in Ciudad Sahagún was not competently performed.[17] Bombardier tried to speed up construction by opening up an additional production line in its plant inKingston, Ontario.
TheFinancial Post reported, in January 2015, that Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant blamed layoffs on Bombardier Ciudad Sahagún's delays in delivery.[18] This in part resulted in defects to the vehicles and delays in final delivery, leading to aC$50 millionlawsuit filed by theToronto Transit Commission, the purchaser of the vehicles.[19][20]
The plant built a series ofElectro-Motive Diesellocomotives.[21] During its periods of ownership first by the government (as Concarril) and subsequently by Bombardier, the plant has built over 100light rail vehicles for rapid transit systems inMexico's three largest cities,Guadalajara,Monterrey, andMexico City.[22][23] The plant has built 70 percent of the rail vehicles in Mexico.[17]
Most notably, workers at the Sahagún plant were failing at what one official calls the "black art" of welding.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Bombardier's explanation for the fiasco is that components for the so-called Flexity vehicle, made on a sub-assembly line in a giant factory in Sahagún, Mexico, were inadequate, and thus held up the manufacturing process in Thunder Bay.
All is not well at this facility. Bombardier did not disclose it to a visitor, but the company is laying off 49 people here in December and January. Upon later inquiry, the company confirmed that it cannot keep these workers busy because of challenges getting parts to the plant from the Bombardier factory in Ciudad Sahagún, near Mexico City, among other places.
The joint venture builds upon a similar collaboration between both companies at Bombardier's manufacturing site in Ciudad Sahagún, Mexico. Bombardier will manufacture certain components, including underframes and bogies, and assemble the EMD locomotives at its Savli, Gujarat facility in India.
According to the state government, 13 companies responded to the call for tenders where the winning bid of 752⋅2m pesos represents a saving of 24% on the expected cost.[permanent dead link]
The TEG-15 LRV is part of Bombardier's Mexican light rail product line, with more than 100 trains in service in Mexico's three largest cities: Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City. The project is being managed by teams working out of Bombardier's Ciudad Sahagún facility in the State of Hidalgo.
Media related toConcarril at Wikimedia Commons