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Foul play at the ornithological wing of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Photograph by Brian Cohen |

Pittsburgh Innovates


June 13, 2007

Bombardier's high tech trains span the globe

They’re sleek, aerodynamic and incredibly dependable, key in the world of rapid transit. Bombardier Total Transit Systems, with headquarters in West Mifflin, is helping to transform travel one people-mover at a time, assembling highly innovative, whisper-fast cars. The company is growing, having added 250 professional, engineers and manufacturing people in the last two years.

Bombardier TTS, pronounced Bom-BARD-ee-A,  was recently awarded a $71 million contract to build 14 people movers for an underground system in the for Ghangzhou City in China. The dual-lane underground automated people mover (APM) is the first driverless urban system in China; the same CX-100 technology is being installed by TTS at the Beijing Capital International Airport and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In fact, land at one of many airports around the world—Heathrow, Madrid, Denver or Orlando—and chances are the shuttle you board was made by Bombardier TTS, including the one at the Pittsburgh International Airport. The cars, which operate solo or coupled, can carry more than 4,000 passengers per hour in each direction.

“Bombardier’s shuttles have maintained an unprecedented record of reliability,” explains Kathryn Nickerson of Total Transit. “Our expertise is fully automated systems, no drivers on board. We have a long established reputation on our Pittsburgh site, formerly the Westinghouse plant, for innovation and technology, and we are looking at significant opportunities world wide in the future.”

Writer: Debra Diamond Smit
Source: Kathryn Nickerson, Bombardier Total Transit Systems

Image courtesy of Bombardier Total Transit Systems

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