Alstom Ferroviaria
Industry | Transport |
---|---|
Founded | 1917 |
Fate | Acquired by Alstom in 2000 |
Headquarters | |
Products | Diesel locomotives Railcars Buses |
Parent | FIAT (up to 2000) |
Fiat Ferroviaria was the rail division of FIAT of Italy. It was founded in 1880 as Società Nazionale Officine di Savigliano.[1] Fiat Ferroviaria began building locomotives in the 1930s. It became part of FIAT in 1970. Fiat Ferroviaria acquired the rail business of SIG of Switzerland in 1995 forming the subsidiary Fiat-Sig.[1] The company had previously owned Argentine company Materfer until 1998,[2] which now operates as an independent company.
It was taken over in 2000 by the French Alstom, which continues to produce and support many of Fiat Ferroviaria's products.[1]
Pendolino
During the 60s-70s Fiat Ferroviaria developed tilting technology for trains and was the first (and the only one for several decades) to produce active tilting trains with the trademark of Pendolino.
In Italy several classes of Pendolinos were adopted starting from 1976 (ETR 401, ETR 450, ETR 460-65, ETR 480-85 and the Alstom made ETR600.
Following the success of the ETR 450 series introduced in Italy in 1988 (the 401 series introduced in 1976 consisted of only 2 trainsets and never operated regular commercial service, working more like an "on-wheel laboratory"), tilting systems including bogies, traction, electric and electronic equipment were ordered by several countries:
- Germany (ICE T)
- Finland (VR Class Sm3 and VR Class Sm6)
- Switzerland (Cisalpino)
- Spain (Alaris)
- Portugal (Alfa Pendular)
- Slovenia (SŽ series 310)
- Czech Republic (ČD Class 680)
In 2001 also Virgin Trains ordered new tilting trainsets (Class 390), but Fiat Ferroviaria was sold to Alstom in 2000. For this reason they were sold under the "Alstom" brand, although the technology was still the same developed by Fiat Ferroviaria.
Directly or indirectly, 18 countries throughout the world applied the Italian Fiat Ferroviaria tilting technology to their trains, including United States and China.
See also
- Pendolino family of tilting trains, built by Fiat Ferroviaria
- Materfer, Argentine factory of licensed Fiat rolling stock
- Fiat Materfer 7131, railcars built by the company for Argentine urban services
References
- ^ a b c History Archived 2011-01-06 at the Wayback Machine, Alstom
- ^ "Venden quebrada Materfer" Archived 2015-05-18 at the Wayback Machine - Ambito Financiero, 8 October 2001.
- Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1917
- 1917 establishments in Italy
- Italian brands
- Rolling stock manufacturers of Italy
- Locomotive manufacturers of Italy
- Alstom
- Fiat
- Fiat Ferroviaria
- Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 2000
- 2000 disestablishments in Italy
- Italian company stubs
- Europe rail transport stubs
- Transport company stubs