A Steuben County train manufacturer will build hundreds of commuter rail cars for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), according to a company press release .
Hornell-based Alstom will produce the train car bodies and assemble them in its new facility Plant 4. Additional parts of the trains will be assembled in Alstom’s facility in Plattsburgh.
The full contract is $2.3 billion and the company says it will create hundreds of jobs, including union jobs with the International Association of Machinists.
The MTA is replacing 40-year-old passenger M-3 cars with M-9A cars on two commuter lines: the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad.
Upgrades for wheelchairs and accessible restrooms along with extra-wide doors and USB charging ports are included in the new builds.
In a press release earlier this month, Alstom said that the M-9A train car bodies will be built in the company’s newly opened 135,000 square foot facility. The new plant allowed the company to bring its manufacturing of stainless steel train car shells that are used to produce passenger trains back to Hornell from Brazil.
Alstom received a $3.4-million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration in 2021 to help with construction costs of the Plant 4 facility.
Alstom’s Hornell location is nearly 200 years old and is the largest passenger rail manufacturer in the U.S.
The company has been building commuter and subway trains that support short and frequent stops in metropolitan areas for more than 60 years, producing thousands for the MTA.