Alstom welcomes Canton of Schaffhausen governing council

On Tuesday 20^th August 2013, an official delegation from the Schaffhausen cantonal government and the municipality of Neuhausen am Rheinfall visited Alstom Schienenfahrzeuge Ltd in Neuhausen am Rheinfall as part of a continuing drive to maintain ties with local industry. Topics addressed included a presentation on the current developments of the long established site of Neuhausen, and also a discussion of the key areas and future projects being undertaken by the cantonal government to strengthen Schaffhausen as an economic location.

Under the direction of Joseph Deiss, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alstom (Switzerland) Ltd, Herman van der Linden, Country Managing Director of Alstom Transport, and Jean-Francois Arnaud, Managing Director of Schienenfahrzeuge Ltd, the government delegation consisting of cantonal councillors Ursula Hafner-Wipf, Ernst Landolt and Reto Dubach, cantonal secretary Stefan Bilger, Neuhausen am Rheinfall deputy mayor Dino Tamagni, and Ueli Jäger from the cantonal trade and industry promotion office was shown the production workshop and the Alstom bogie testing facility. This testing facility for static and dynamic chassis testing is unique worldwide and enables an entire bogie life cycle of up to 40 years to be simulated within only a few months. Alstom Schienenfahrzeuge Ltd is a centre of excellence for bogies throughout the Alstom group.

The tour also included the inauguration of the new production line dedicated to manufacturing the 119 bogies for the eight new SBB Pendolino ETR610 trains. The bogies are produced in Neuhausen am Rheinfall and supplied as finished components to the Alstom factory in Savigliano (Italy), where the trains ordered in August 2012 are currently being constructed. The first trains are scheduled to be delivered to SBB at the end of 2014.

Inauguration ceremony. From left to right: Jean-Francois Arnaud, Rene Meyer, Reto Dubach, Ernst Landolt, Herman van der Linden, Ursula Hafner-Wipf, Dino Tamagni, Joseph Deiss, Stefan Bilger, Ueli Jäger.