Alstom
Alstom has installed a photovoltaic panel system covering more than 15,000 square meters at its manufacturing plant in Sahagún, Mexico, which has built more than 4,000 metro and light rail vehicles, as well as 2,000 diesel and electric locomotives for the country’s three largest cities (Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey). The Sahagún site also manufactures Tren Maya equipment for the Mexican federal government, and has produced sub-assemblies and large assemblies for trains operating in such cities as New York, Long Island, Edmonton, Toronto, Beijing, Minneapolis, Kuala Lumpur, Riyadh, and San Francisco, among others.
According to Alstom, the 1,080 photovoltaic panels offer a production capacity of 583 kWh, which will generate approximately 1,220 MWh of energy per year, or 16.8% of the site’s total energy consumption. The project was developed under a Power Purchase Agreement; Spanish company Iberdrola will operate the system for 20 years, while Alstom will consume the energy produced. It is estimated that the energy produced will reduce CO2 emissions by 0.43 tons per MWh.
The installation—the first of its kind on Alstom sites in the Americas—is said to provide “an efficient and sustainable alternative to the rising cost of electricity and the volatility of the energy market.”
To date, Alstom has installed photovoltaic panels at 12 of its sites around the world, with more in the pipeline. It is part of the company’s objective to reduce direct and indirect CO2 emissions at its sites by 40% compared with the fiscal year 2021/2022.
“The new Sahagún photovoltaic panel center represents an important milestone for our Mexican operations, as well as for Alstom’s commitment to building a more sustainable and competitive future for our industry,” said Maite Ramos, Managing Director of Alstom Mexico, a 2023 Railway Age Women in Rail honoree. “Our priority is to achieve truly green mobility.”
Separately, Alstom recently delivered the first of 29 Innovia APM (automated people mover) 300R vehicles to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, and signed a seven-year contract extension with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to provide operations and maintenance services for JFK International Airport’s AirTrain.
Hitachi Rail
Hitachi Rail has released a new report exploring the key factors influencing people’s mobility choices in urban areas, and analyzing how rail transport can compete with—or even surpass—cars and planes for long-distance travel. It addresses such questions as:
- What do people want from transport services?
- Under what circumstances would they switch to lower-impact forms of mobility?
- And, by extension: What can governments do quickly and cheaply to ensure the modal shift happens?
Conducted by Savanta ComRes, The Better Connected Report 2025 incorporates the opinions of more than 11,000 people surveyed across the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, as well as in several major international cities (Washington D.C.; Toronto; London; Paris; Berlin; Copenhagen; and Dubai). This is the third consecutive year that Hitachi Rail has commissioned such research.
Citizens around Europe and North America anticipate train travel to soar in the coming years at the expense of flying, and almost two-thirds back legislation to enforce this change, supporting a ban on short-haul flights where high speed rail alternatives exist, according to Hitachi Rail.
While rail currently accounts for around one-third (29%) of long-distance journeys—judged as 2.5 hours or more—one-third of people surveyed expect to travel more by train in the next 12 months, increasing to between 40% (across countries) and 49% (across cities) in the next five years, Hitachi Rail reported. By contrast, 2% expected to fly more during this time period. Respondents also anticipate their car travel growing, but 50% less than rail, according to Hitachi Rail.
“The expectation to use train travel more in the future, is also complemented by a clear majority (62%) backing legislation to ban short-haul flights where high speed alternatives exist,” Hitachi Rail said. “In Europe, where there are an increasing number of high-speed rail routes, support rises to 67%. Such legislation has already been introduced in France, and is anticipated in Spain, and is popular in both countries with over twice as many respondents supporting it as opposing it. Those surveyed in both countries would even support stronger additional legislation (63% in Spain and 56% in France).”
Across every place surveyed, Hitachi Rail said more people also backed funding new rail infrastructure with increased air or road taxes, than those who opposed them.
The research also explored how to grow public transport usage, with respondents identifying crowding, affordability, and convenience as the biggest challenges. Across all countries, Hitachi Rail said, more than seven in ten people surveyed said they would use public transport more if it were better connected, and this remained at over half even if it cost more.
“We, as an industry, have a crucial opportunity to meet this public demand by delivering a great sustainable mobility transition,” Hitachi Rail Group Chief Markets Officer Edoardo La Ficara said.
