Hitachi Rail Italy presents the first train of the new Metro of Honolulu

Directly from Hawaii, in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, Hitachi Rail Italy unveiled yesterday the first of 20, 4-cars vehicles planned for the new metro of Honolulu. Manufactured and assembled in Italy, at the factory in Reggio Calabria, the cars are completed, furnished and equipped with all the foreseen technological innovations, in the HRI site of Pittsburg in California and transported to Hawaii.

The new Honolulu metro, manufactured by Hitachi Rail Italy, has the peculiarity of being driverless, that is without driver, thanks to the sophisticated control systems of Ansaldo STS. Both companies are part of the Joint Venture Ansaldo Honolulu JV that was awarded a contract with HART (Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation)of over 1 billion 300 million dollars.

The vehicles are designed by Hitachi Rail Italy to fulfill the internal and tourist requirements of the Hawaii island. They have a capacity of over600 passengers including 120 seats and 68 flip up.

"We deliver the first complete train, perfectly in compliance with the deadlines agreed with the customer – underscored Maurizio Manfellotto, CEO of Hitachi Rail Italy - This order strengthens our global development plan, which sees us present in every partof the world, from the Americas to China and Taiwan. A development that is based on quality and reliability, with maximum respect for the needs of our customers, thanks to a production capacity that has reached very high levels."

The presence of Hitachi Rail Italy (former AnsaldoBreda) in the United Stat goes back several decades ago and it is full of successes. Among the most important ones stand out the metro of Washington (still in operation), of Los Angeles (in operation), of Atlanta (in operation) and the tram in San Francisco. HRI products (former AB) also in Boston, Cleveland. Hitachi Rail Italy has factories in America: Miami (opened about a month ago), Pittsburg (California) and Dansville (New York).