Hitachi Rail STS

1853–2006: Ancestor companies

The company’s namesake comes from the Italian company Gio. Ansaldo & C., which was founded in 1853 in Genoa, Italy by Giovanni Ansaldo. Gio. Ansaldo & C. began as a steam locomotive producer, which diversified into shipbuilding and electrical and nuclear energy production.

In 1881, the US company Union Switch & Signal (US&S) was founded by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from the assets of the Interlocking Switch & Signal Company (interlocking controls) and the Union Electric Signal Company. The latter was founded by the American engineer and inventor William Robinson, the father of track circuit systems. In 1988 US&S was acquired by Ansaldo STS, operating independently until 2009, when it became "Ansaldo STS USA", the North American subsidiary of Ansaldo.

In Europe, Ansaldo STS expanded acquiring the French company Compagnie des Signaux pour Chemins de fer (CSE) in 1996. Founded in 1902 by Fernand Cumont with the support of the financial group Empain, CSE built the first lines of the Paris metro: the maintenance of these lines continues until today. In 1920 CSE (independent since 1912) was renamed into Company and Business Electrical Signals (CSEE), concentrating on rail signaling and electrical manufacturing, contributing to create SAGEM and later (1996) entering in the Ansaldo Signal group.

In 1993 the parent company Ansaldo SpA was merged into the Finmeccanica holding, a state-owned entity privatized during the same year. In 2001, Ansaldo SpA’s transportation business was separated and divided into three companies: AnsaldoBreda (rolling stock manufacturer); Ansaldo Segnalamento Ferroviario (signaling and rail traffic control automation); Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari (transport systems design construction and maintenance). Ansaldo Segnalamento Ferroviario became the parent company of Ansaldo Signal (railway signalling), the owner of Union Switch & Signal and CSEE.

2006–2019: Ansaldo STS

The company was founded as "Ansaldo STS" in 2006 through the merger of Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari and Ansaldo Signal. It began trading on the Milan Stock exchange, with 60% of its shares publicly held and 40% owned by Finmeccanica S.p.A. Both companies had their roots in the Ansaldo engineering conglomerate which was gradually absorbed by Finmeccanica. Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari was created in 2000, acquiring certain units of Ansaldo Trasporti (which had been fully integrated into Finmeccanica) the following year. The creation of Ansaldo STS was followed by a partial IPO in March 2006.

On 24 February 2015 Hitachi acquired Finmeccanica’s 51% shareholding and initiated a tender offer for the remaining shares of the company. In the occasion

of the Ordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting on 2 November, Hitachi Rail Italy Investment completed the acquisition of the 40% of the share capital of Ansaldo STS. During the first meeting of the new board of directors, chaired by Alistair Dormer, Stefano Siragusa was confirmed as chief executive officer and general manager of the company, with the powers to manage the company and the group.

In March 2015, after the public tender offer launch on the society and after the purchase of other shares at 10.5 euros each, Hitachi Rail Italy Investments arrived at 50.7% of the share capital. Hitachi has a long term goal of integrating the company to provide a range of cars and signaling products and a manufacturing footprint in Europe.

The company's operations are split into two divisions: Freight Rail and Passenger Railway / Mass Transit. Major projects involving Hitachi Rail STS and its predecessor companies include the Copenhagen Metro, where it is responsible for the provision of rolling stock, Automatic Train Control, SCADA and other services; and signalling on LGV Est in France and High Speed 1 in the United Kingdom. The company also managed projects for signalling, train control and/or maintenance for the Metro systems of Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Milan, Hong Kong, Naples, Shenyang, India, and Thessaloniki.

High-speed rail

Hitachi Rail STS commissioned the first high-speed rail signaling system (TVM) for the first LGV line in France, in 1981, connecting Paris and Lyon. In 2005, Hitachi Rail STS set another landmark with the first high speed line running on ERTMS Level 2 (European Rail Traffic Management System) between Rome and Naples, Italy.

As of 2013 over half of all high speed lines worldwide (excluding Japan) are equipped with Hitachi Rail STS signaling.

Main lines and freight

In Europe, the company played a key role in the development and upgrade of ERTMS (level 1 and 2), leading to the interoperability of different countries' rail networks.