On the Right Track
The $300 million Hitachi Rail plant on Halfway Boulevard. Photo by Mark Youngblood
By Charles Jeffries
This summer’s opening of Hitachi Rail’s next-gen factory brings more jobs, an expanded tax base, and yet another shot in the arm to the resurging Hagerstown and Washington County economy.
“The overall economy in Hagerstown and Washington County has been on an upward trajectory for the last five years,” says Paul Frey, president and CEO of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce. “We have added much needed warehouse and distribution businesses, a state-of-the-art baseball and multi-use facility, an outstanding indoor fieldhouse, and a new medical school, the Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine.
“Now, add to all these outstanding additions to the local economy the recent opening of the Hitachi plant. The addition of many new jobs and the increase in the local and state tax base from the $350 million investment by Hitachi is yet another win for our local economy.”
With contracts serving the Washington, D.C. region, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, the $100 million carbon-neutral facility is expected to bring 460 jobs to the area when the plant is fully ramped up.
The plant, capable of delivering 20 railcars per month for North American customers, includes more than $30 million invested in digital enhancements and showcases the Hitachi Group’s powerful digital and transformative technologies for both the rail sector and broader industrial applications. And it will do so in an environmentally sensitive way. The 307,000 square-foot site operates with zero landfill waste.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore called the plant a major milestone in the partnership between Hitachi and the state of Maryland.
“Hitachi Rail’s new Hagerstown factory will not only create hundreds of jobs and power the region’s transit infrastructure with railcars equipped with cutting-edge technology, but it affirms Maryland’s position as a premier location for global investment in the industries of the future,” he said.
Toshiaki Higashihara, president and CEO of Hitachi, says the Hagerstown factory showcases the unique strengths of the Hitachi Group by integrating manufacturing expertise and digital and AI technologies across a wide range of business domains.
“We will deliver ever greater value to our customers and society by addressing infrastructure and mobility challenges in the United States,” he said.
Hitachi broke ground in March of 2022 and the first railcar has now rolled off the assembly line. The company has a $2.2 billion contract with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. WMATA CEO and general manager, Randy Clarke, says the incredible technology of the plant will help Metro focus on continuous customer improvement and innovation.
“It’s great to have a partner like Hitachi that embraces technology and invests capital dollars in state-of-the-art infrastructure like this facility to transform the future of transit for this region and North America,” he said.
The plant on Halfway Boulevard officially opened on Sept. 8.
Experience the Rails
The new Hitachi factory features a Customer Experience Center where visitors can take part in interactive experiences with Hitachi’s AI capabilities and actually see what it’s like to operate a subway train.
There are also demonstrations of an AI system to direct waiting passengers to least-crowded areas of an arriving train, an avatar that answers spoken questions about Hitachi products and services, and a small video theater.