Stadler’s Success Story in Hungary

Stadler Trains Hungary Ltd., a subsidiary of Stadler Rail Group, the Swiss manufacturer of railway rolling stock, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year as it was established on December 1, 2005, after winning the public procurement procedure for the purchase of 30+30 suburban trains from MÁV Hungarian Railways. As Chairman Dr. Róbert Homolya describes to Diplomacy&Trade, Stadler is present in Hungary with a manufacturing plant, as well as a bogie revision competence center in Szolnok and a service facility in Pusztaszabolcs – both serving Hungarian and international clients.

Both Stadler Hungary and its parent company have undergone tremendous development in recent decades. “Stadler's modern history began in the late 1980s and today, the company has more than 15,000 employees. In the last 20-30 years, it has become a global manufacturer, having established subsidiaries in over 20 countries. Two years ago, or so, Stadler overtook Siemens in the field of railway vehicle manufacturing and in the field of multiple unit trainsets where it is one of the world's leading manufacturers and it is a success story in Hungary too. Stadler’s first location in Hungary was in Pusztaszabolcs. The company started to build it in 2006 with the aim that by the time the first Stadler trains arrived in the country in 2007, this place would be able to service the trains,” the Chairman explains. Then, in October 2007, it was decided that Stadler Trains Hungary Ltd. would establish an aluminum car body manufacturing plant in Szolnok, with an annual capacity of 200 such units.

Great responsibility, great pride
Dr. Róbert Homolya adds that by 2016, MÁV already had 123 FLIRT electric multiple unit articulated trainsets, and this number rose to 143 in Hungary by 2019 with an order from the GYSEV regional service provider. In the meantime, 40 KISS double-decker multiple units and 12 CITY LINK tram trains (tram trains) have been added, and with the latest GYSEV order for 9+2 InterCity trains (FLIRT) will bring the number of Stadler vehicles in Hungary to over 200. “Now, on the 20th anniversary, we have reached the point where Stadler has almost 1,000 employees in Hungary and the Szolnok plant has the annual capacity to produce 750 carriages, and the big step forward is that Stadler has started to produce double-deck carriages here. So, it's a huge development. These relatively new multiple unit trainsets, used in suburban traffic, account for 30% of MÁV's mileage, and thanks to suburban transport, it is perhaps not too much to say that every second passenger in Hungary today travels on a Stadler train, which is great responsibility and a great pride for the company. If we look at the production side, the one in Szolnok has become the largest aluminum plant of its kind at Stadler, which is again a huge achievement it has grown into a competence center.”

Integral part of the Stadler network
Hungary plays an important role in Stadler Group's international activities. “I mentioned that the Szolnok plant produces aluminum car bodies and once these car bodies are produced, depending on how the production was organized, they are shipped to Switzerland, Germany or Poland where the final assembly takes place. Car bodies for the multiple unit trainsets destined for the United States. So, in that respect, Szolnok, has been able to become an integral part of the supply system,” the Chairman highlights.
Szolnok is also home to one of Stadler's three Bogie Revision Competence Centers (BRCC), strategically located throughout Europe. It is linked to the service division, as is the plant in Pusztaszabolcs. First, as I mentioned, the latter was to service the first Stadler trains that arrived in Hungary but over the years, the activities of the maintenance base in Pusztaszabolcs grew into a whole division, which now brings together the service activities of the Stadler Group, he adds.

A FLIRTing success
Obviously, Stadler’s customers are the railway companies but the end users are the people who travel on these trains. “In the last 20 years, basically, it has only been Stadler that has won a contract for the supply of FLIRT and KISS multiple unit trainsets in Hungary. We have a huge fleet running, near r 200 multiple units in service here. How a vehicle looks, what kind of seats it has, what sort of design it has, these are not decided by the manufacturer, but by the customer. While, obviously, these vehicles are parameterized by the customer, it is the manufacturer that then implements and delivers them. I think that these Stadler trains have proven themselves over the years: there are 143 FLIRTs running in Hungary but Stadler has sold more than 2,700 units of this type so far worldwide. Their success is also shown in terms of the number of passengers transported or the number kilometers traveled. All this clearly proves that this was a well-conceived and marketable vehicle design – sustainable, well-serviceable, highly available vehicles. It was, to say the least, a product that also underpinned Stadler's success. As a result, the capacity of the Szolnok factory is being developed,” Dr. Róbert Homolya says.

He stresses that the time has come for double-decker multiple units because more and more people want to travel by rail but the station infrastructure cannot be enlarged further, like making much longer platforms, it is only possible to go upwards as long as the overhead line allows this capacity to be increased. “In fact, in terms of Stadler sales, more and more double-decker units are included in tenders by the large rail operators, and we are winning more and more of these tenders. In Hungary, there are currently 40 such double-decker multiple units running, but in neighboring Austria, the ÖBB has signed a contract for 186 such units, which shows that there is a change in trend. Rail traffic itself and the demand from passengers present the need for more and more trains, which is a good thing, but this must be adapted to and justified by the factories and the production capacities. This is why Szolnok is perhaps the winner.

Bright future for Stadler
Looking to the near future at this 20th anniversary, the Chairman hopes for better circumstances that they have had in the last 4-5 years. “After the new coronavirus pandemic there came the Russian-Ukrainian war, which, unfortunately, still rages on, and last year, Stadler was hit by natural disasters, like the flooding in Valencia, where we have a huge plant with a workforce of over 2,000 people. But there have also been floods in Switzerland, which have made it difficult to supply raw materials to production. The aluminum plant in Switzerland was completely flooded by mud and it took about a year to restore production there. However, looking at the brighter side at Stadler, the order book is at an all-time high, approaching CHF 29 billion. So, we are certainly looking ahead positively to the next four to five years but also expecting hard work in our factories. Of course, more tenders are announced all over the world, especially in Europe and in the United States, so, this order book will hopefully grow dynamically, alongside which we will have to keep increasing our production capacity,” Dr. Róbert Homolya concludes.