abdulhakeem
22-02-08, 07:25 PM
A STREETCAR NAMED SIEMENS
Germans Woo Car-Loving US with Eco-Friendly Trams
By Christian Wüst (Christian_Wuest@spiegel.de)
February 22, 2008
Can America be cured of its obsession with driving? Engineering giant Siemens thinks it can. Its US light-rail manufacturing subsidiary is enjoying boom times -- selling a vehicle designed to withstand collisions with cars.
For engineer Oliver Hauck, manufacturing rail vehicles is more than ordinary industrial production. In fact Hauck proudly calls it a "real craft."
Hauck knows what he's talking about. He runs German engineering giant Siemens' streetcar manufacturing plant in Sacramento. But when the German company showed up in the California capital more than two years ago with its plans to build trams there, it found little evidence of craft or even skill. Hauck couldn't find a single welder with the right skills for the job anywhere in the region.
Making meter-long welds across thin sheet metal without the car "bending like a banana," says Hauck, takes talent and sensitivity. More important, it takes good training. To provide that training, Siemens flew 50 welders from its Munich locomotive plant to California, where they spent six months retraining local welders. Now the Sacramento plant is up and running.
In fact, it's operating at full speed ahead. Streetcar and light rail production is one of the few booming industries in the crisis-plagued United States. Siemens is the market leader and is seeing a rapid increase in orders, with firm commitments for more than 200 trains currently on its books. When the company completes its new assembly building in about two years, it will be able to almost double its current production volume of 72 trains a year. When that happens, Hauck expects the high demand for Siemens' light rail vehicles to continue indefinitely.
America is discovering public transportation. Light rail, a collective term for urban rail systems and streetcars, is becoming the mantra of a reorientation of the country's infrastructure. Almost 30 American cities have introduced new streetcar systems, and 50 more have either begun construction or announced plans to emphasize light rail transportation in the future.
The United States, traditionally a nation of cars, faces international criticism for its high levels of gasoline consumption. But chronic road congestion is also becoming an economic problem. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, traffic congestion costs the economy $78 billion a year in the form of lost working hours and wasted fuel.
As a result, light rail systems are becoming an attractive option, even in the auto lobby's traditional strongholds. Texas oil center Houston, for example, opened its first, modest light rail line, Metrorail, four years ago -- although the single 10-kilometer (six-mile) line, with its 18 trains, was somewhat reminiscent of a small collection of toy trains. Meanwhile, the city is expanding the network to include 50 kilometers (31 miles) of track, and has ordered another 100 trains.
These are puny numbers compared with Europe's transportation networks, and the selection of trains and producers is also limited. Siemens' main competitors are Canada's Bombardier Group and Japanese train manufacturer Kinki Sharyo. The Japanese company doesn't even have its own factory in the United States, instead leasing production buildings wherever its current customers are located.
Market leader Siemens' product line consists of only two models. The newer model, with a lattice frame and a plastic body, is similar to modern European streetcar designs. But the classic model is a quaint tram with a steel body, based on a decades-old vehicle originally produced by Duewag, a company Siemens acquired in 1989.
Because of its excellent crash statistics, the boxy vehicle is especially popular in places where collisions with other vehicles are more likely, Hauck explains. In a country in which many cars are designed to be exceptionally thick-skinned, robustness is one of the most important attributes of light rail construction.
The old Duewag model is still used in Sacramento's light rail system, but it is equipped with one of the most state-of-the-art drive systems in the railway business. When the brakes are applied at stops, the train feeds current back into the electrical system, which, like a hybrid car, charges a battery. Capacitors store the energy and release it to the next train as it accelerates.
This type of energy conservation technology is more than welcome in California, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (more...) (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,526202,00.html) has been a strong advocate of developing a more climate-friendly industrial society -- which happens to be something of a distant goal for his state. California, the country's most populous state, is one of the world's largest emitters of carbon dioxide, and its largest city, Los Angeles, has become a symbol of a nightmarish society in which the car is king. Worldwide, road transportation accounts for about 20 percent of fossil fuel consumption; in California, that figure is 44 percent.
Governor Schwarzenegger wants to see California reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. But there is little evidence so far that any practical steps have been taken to implement such plans.
Indeed, it seems that the only way this ambitious goal can be reached is by getting rid of the current breed of automobiles. The future does indeed look bright for Siemens' streetcar business.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,536892,00.html
Germans Woo Car-Loving US with Eco-Friendly Trams
By Christian Wüst (Christian_Wuest@spiegel.de)
February 22, 2008
Can America be cured of its obsession with driving? Engineering giant Siemens thinks it can. Its US light-rail manufacturing subsidiary is enjoying boom times -- selling a vehicle designed to withstand collisions with cars.
For engineer Oliver Hauck, manufacturing rail vehicles is more than ordinary industrial production. In fact Hauck proudly calls it a "real craft."
Hauck knows what he's talking about. He runs German engineering giant Siemens' streetcar manufacturing plant in Sacramento. But when the German company showed up in the California capital more than two years ago with its plans to build trams there, it found little evidence of craft or even skill. Hauck couldn't find a single welder with the right skills for the job anywhere in the region.
Making meter-long welds across thin sheet metal without the car "bending like a banana," says Hauck, takes talent and sensitivity. More important, it takes good training. To provide that training, Siemens flew 50 welders from its Munich locomotive plant to California, where they spent six months retraining local welders. Now the Sacramento plant is up and running.
In fact, it's operating at full speed ahead. Streetcar and light rail production is one of the few booming industries in the crisis-plagued United States. Siemens is the market leader and is seeing a rapid increase in orders, with firm commitments for more than 200 trains currently on its books. When the company completes its new assembly building in about two years, it will be able to almost double its current production volume of 72 trains a year. When that happens, Hauck expects the high demand for Siemens' light rail vehicles to continue indefinitely.
America is discovering public transportation. Light rail, a collective term for urban rail systems and streetcars, is becoming the mantra of a reorientation of the country's infrastructure. Almost 30 American cities have introduced new streetcar systems, and 50 more have either begun construction or announced plans to emphasize light rail transportation in the future.
The United States, traditionally a nation of cars, faces international criticism for its high levels of gasoline consumption. But chronic road congestion is also becoming an economic problem. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, traffic congestion costs the economy $78 billion a year in the form of lost working hours and wasted fuel.
As a result, light rail systems are becoming an attractive option, even in the auto lobby's traditional strongholds. Texas oil center Houston, for example, opened its first, modest light rail line, Metrorail, four years ago -- although the single 10-kilometer (six-mile) line, with its 18 trains, was somewhat reminiscent of a small collection of toy trains. Meanwhile, the city is expanding the network to include 50 kilometers (31 miles) of track, and has ordered another 100 trains.
These are puny numbers compared with Europe's transportation networks, and the selection of trains and producers is also limited. Siemens' main competitors are Canada's Bombardier Group and Japanese train manufacturer Kinki Sharyo. The Japanese company doesn't even have its own factory in the United States, instead leasing production buildings wherever its current customers are located.
Market leader Siemens' product line consists of only two models. The newer model, with a lattice frame and a plastic body, is similar to modern European streetcar designs. But the classic model is a quaint tram with a steel body, based on a decades-old vehicle originally produced by Duewag, a company Siemens acquired in 1989.
Because of its excellent crash statistics, the boxy vehicle is especially popular in places where collisions with other vehicles are more likely, Hauck explains. In a country in which many cars are designed to be exceptionally thick-skinned, robustness is one of the most important attributes of light rail construction.
The old Duewag model is still used in Sacramento's light rail system, but it is equipped with one of the most state-of-the-art drive systems in the railway business. When the brakes are applied at stops, the train feeds current back into the electrical system, which, like a hybrid car, charges a battery. Capacitors store the energy and release it to the next train as it accelerates.
This type of energy conservation technology is more than welcome in California, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (more...) (http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,526202,00.html) has been a strong advocate of developing a more climate-friendly industrial society -- which happens to be something of a distant goal for his state. California, the country's most populous state, is one of the world's largest emitters of carbon dioxide, and its largest city, Los Angeles, has become a symbol of a nightmarish society in which the car is king. Worldwide, road transportation accounts for about 20 percent of fossil fuel consumption; in California, that figure is 44 percent.
Governor Schwarzenegger wants to see California reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. But there is little evidence so far that any practical steps have been taken to implement such plans.
Indeed, it seems that the only way this ambitious goal can be reached is by getting rid of the current breed of automobiles. The future does indeed look bright for Siemens' streetcar business.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,536892,00.html