[ad_1]
Once a leader in passenger rail, the United States is lagging behind many industrialized nations in rail and passenger financing — but investment is picking up.
Investment in passenger trains across North America, which includes high-speed rail, light rail, metro, passenger buses and locomotives, is expected to grow 4.7% annually between 2021 and 2026, estimates McKinsey & Company.
A big boost to the railway industry comes from Infrastructure and Jobs Investment Law (IIJA), which is passed in 2021 and allocates $66 billion to improve the country’s rail system.
“I think commuter rail in the United States has been a little slow in recent years because of funding,” Mark Puncher, president and CEO at Siemens Navigating North America, for CNBC. “If you look at the federal funding that other countries are getting, it’s massive. The federal funding is the only piece that we need. Now that we have it, I think you’re going to see a tremendous amount of growth in the industry.”
Federal investment is also driving companies to create a domestic supply chain. At its facility in Hornell, New York, the train maker Alstom It is working to fulfill a request for Amtrak, the federally owned US commuter train operator, to modernize its fleet of Acela trains.
“Today you probably have about a half dozen different rolling stock suppliers in the United States building trains,” said Scott Sheeren, chief commercial officer, Alstom USA. “The challenge has always been the fragility of the supply chain behind it. And what we’ve seen with the investment that Amtrak has made in these next-generation high-speed trains is this: We’ve brought in about a dozen different suppliers from mainly Europe that have set up and made foreign direct investment in The United States has set up factories and … capacity.”
Apart from the government, private companies are also promoting the passenger railways in the country. Brightline has already built commuter rail service in Florida, and its sister company, Brightline West, is working on a high-speed commuter rail line between Las Vegas and Southern California.
CNBC visited rolling stock manufacturers Siemens and Alstom to see how they are increasing their production of passenger trains and to see how the companies are projecting the future of passenger rail in the United States. Watch the video to find out more.
[ad_2]
