Concarril

Constructora Nacional de Carros de Ferrocarril SA (English: National Railway Car Manufacturing Company), known as Concarril, or less commonly as CNCF,[4] was a government-owned major rail vehicle manufacturer located in Ciudad Sahagún, Mexico,[5] from the 1950s through 1991. It manufactured a wide variety of passenger and freight cars, as well as locomotives. Formed in 1952[1] (some sources say 1954),[3][6][7] it was owned by the Mexican government. After accumulating too much debt, it ceased operating in December 1991 and was sold to Bombardier Inc. in April 1992 for around U.S.$68 million.[3][8] At that time, it was the largest manufacturer of railway rolling stock in Mexico.[3] Production resumed at the Ciudad Sahagún facilities after Bombardier took over.

A Concarril-built light rail car on the Guadalajara light rail system in 1990
Concarril
TypeGovernment-owned public company (S.A.)
FatePrivatized; acquired by Bombardier Transportation
SuccessorBombardier-Concarril SA de CV and (later) Gunderson-Concarril SA
FoundedApril 14, 1952[1][2]
FounderVíctor Manuel Villaseñor
Defunct1992
Headquarters
Ciudad Sahagún
,
Mexico
ProductsRolling stock, including freight cars, locomotives and passenger rail cars (including subway/metro cars and light rail vehicles)
Number of employees
3,000 (1991)[3]

The Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM, or NdeM), the country's government-owned railroad company until the 1990s, purchased large numbers of railroad cars from Concarril, including a variety of freight and passenger cars. The latter included sleeping cars in addition to conventional coaches. Dining cars were not one of its regular products; it built its first such car in 1989, for FNM.[9] The company also built locomotives for FNM and other railroads, and undertook rebuilding (or refurbishment) work on older locomotives and coaches.

Passenger railway cars built by Concarril for urban rail transit use included subway/metro cars for the Mexico City Metro and light rail vehicles (LRVs) for the Guadalajara light rail system, the Monterrey Metro and the Xochimilco Light Rail line of Mexico City's STE.[5][10] The company made both steel-wheeled and rubber-tired subway cars for Mexico City.[6][7] It also supplied subway cars to the Santiago Metro, in Chile[5] (specifically the NS-88 trainset as a replacement for an NS-74 train that was destroyed during a terrorist attack in 1986); that was part of an effort by the Mexican government in 1990 to boost exports of manufactured goods, which also encompassed a planned sale of 200 Concarril-built freight cars to Venezuela.[11]

Refurbished rubber-tired train of the Mexico City Metro, of type NM-73, built by Concarril

Successors

In spring 1992, the company was acquired from the Mexican government by Bombardier Inc., of Canada,[3][7][12][13] becoming part of Bombardier Transportation, as a subsidiary named Bombardier-Concarril SA. Production resumed later the same year. For some types of vehicles, Bombardier initially maintained use of the same designs as had been used by Concarril, such as for light rail cars for the Monterrey Metro, where a batch of 23 built in 1990 by Concarril and a batch of 25 built in 1992–93 by Bombardier were described by one writer as being "almost identical".[10]

In 1998, the Greenbrier Companies, of Lake Oswego, Oregon, entered into a joint venture with Bombardier to manufacture freight railroad cars at the Bombardier Ciudad Sahagún plant.[6] The partnership was named Greenbrier-Concarril LLC, and Greenbrier subsidiary Gunderson Inc. managed the U.S. company's involvement, as Gunderson-Concarril SA de CV. Production included boxcars, flatcars and gondola cars.[14] In December 2004, Greenbrier purchased Bombardier's 50-percent interest and became sole owner of Greenbrier-Concarril LLC and Gunderson-Concarril SA, manufacturing freight cars only.[15] Bombardier retained ownership of the factory facilities and leased them to Greenbrier/Gunderson.[16] Production of passenger railroad equipment continued to be undertaken by Bombardier (as subsidiary Bombardier Transportation México, formerly known as Bombardier-Concarril), using another part of the former-Concarril factory in Ciudad Sahagún.[16]

Toronto contract

Bombardier won contracts for two of the largest rail vehicle contracts in North America, 204 Flexity Outlook streetcars and 182 Flexity Freedom light rail vehicles, for the Toronto Transit Commission, and MetroLinx, a regional transit authority in the Greater Toronto Area.[12] Bombardier split construction of these vehicles between its Ciudad Sahagún factory and one of its factories in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Welding the basic chassis was to take place in the Ciudad Sahagún factory, before shipping them to its facility in Thunder Bay for final assembly.. Bombardier fell years behind in delivery of these vehicles. Reports in the Canadian press repeated claims that the workers in the Thunder Bay plant that the work done in Ciudad Sahagún was not competently performed.[17] Bombardier tried to speed up construction by opening up an additional production line in its plant in Kingston, Ontario.

The Financial Post reported, in January 2015, that Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant blamed layoffs on Bombardier Ciudad Sahagún's delays in delivery.[18] This in part resulted in defects to the vehicles and delays in final delivery, leading to a C$50 million lawsuit filed by the Toronto Transit Commission, the purchaser of the vehicles.[19][20]

Bombardier Ciudad Sahagun plant

The plant built a series of Electro-Motive Diesel locomotives.[21] The plant has built over 100 light rail vehicles for rapid transit systems in Mexico's three largest cities, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City.[22][23] The plant has built 70 percent of the rail vehicles in Mexico.[17]

See also
  • MASA – Mexican government-owned bus manufacturer that was similarly privatized in the 1990s

References
  1. "Site Fact Sheet: Bombardier Transportation Mexico – Site in Sahagún, State of Hidalgo, Mexico" (PDF). Bombardier Inc. March 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 13, 2018. Retrieved 2019-05-21.
  2. Villaseñor, Víctor Manuel. Memorias de un Hombre de Izquierda, vol-2, p. 201
  3. "Company News: Mexican Unit To Bombardier". The New York Times. Associated Press. April 10, 1992. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
  4. Prather, C.R. (October 1984). "Mexican Railroads [regular news section]" (PDF). Pacific RailNews. Glendale, CA (US): Interurban Press. p. 26. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  5. Bushell, Chris (ed.) (1991). Jane's Urban Transport Systems 1991, pp. 399–400. Coulsdon, Surrey (UK): Jane's Information Group. ISBN 0-7106-0951-5.
  6. Bugailiskis, Alex; Rozental, Andrés, eds. (2012). Canada Among Nations, 2011-2012: Canada and Mexico's Unfinished Agenda. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 50. ISBN 9780773586741. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
  7. Sebree, Mac; and the PRN staff (August 1992). "Industry [in transit news section]" (PDF). Pacific RailNews. Glendale, CA (US): Interurban Press. p. 48. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  8. Light Rail & Modern Tramway, August 1992, pp. 218–219. UK: Ian Allan Publishing.
  9. Prather, C.R. (July 1989). "Mexican Railroads [regular news section]" (PDF). Pacific RailNews. Glendale, CA (US): Interurban Press. p. 12. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  10. May, Jack (1994). "Mexico Says Sí to LRT: Light Rail South of the Border". 1994 Light Rail Annual & User's Guide, p. 7. Pasadena, CA (US): Pentrex. ISSN 0160-6913.
  11. "Mexico boosting export efforts". The Kerrville Times. Kerrville, Texas. Associated Press. September 10, 1990. p. 2. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
  12. Ben Spurr, Edward Keenan, Marco Chown Oved, Jayme Poisson, Marina Jimenez, David Rider (2017-05-05). "Not in service". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2018-07-06. Retrieved 2018-07-06. Most notably, workers at the Sahagún plant were failing at what one official calls the “black art” of welding.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. "Bombardier Transportation FactSheet Sahagun Mexico" (PDF). Bombardier Inc. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
  14. Harris, Ken (ed.) (2001). Jane's World Railways 2001–2002 (43rd edition), p. 599. Coulsdon, Surrey (UK): Jane's Information Group. ISBN 978-0-7106-2335-5.
  15. "Greenbrier buys out partner in Mexican venture". Portland Business Journal. December 7, 2004. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
  16. "Bombardier Announces the Sale to Greenbrier of its Interest in its Freight Cars Manufacturing Joint Venture in Mexico" (Press release). Montreal: Bombardier Inc. December 7, 2004. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved 2019-05-21.
  17. John Lorinc (2016-05-03). "Bombardier's Mexico problem". Spacing magazine. Retrieved 2018-07-06. Bombardier’s explanation for the fiasco is that components for the so-called Flexity vehicle, made on a sub-assembly line in a giant factory in Sahagún, Mexico, were inadequate, and thus held up the manufacturing process in Thunder Bay.
  18. Peter Kuitenbrouwer (2015-01-05). "Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant hit with supply chain woes". Financial Post. Retrieved 2018-07-06. All is not well at this facility. Bombardier did not disclose it to a visitor, but the company is laying off 49 people here in December and January. Upon later inquiry, the company confirmed that it cannot keep these workers busy because of challenges getting parts to the plant from the Bombardier factory in Ciudad Sahagún, near Mexico City, among other places.
  19. Kuitenbrouwer, Peter (January 5, 2015). "Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant hit with supply chain woes". Financial Post. Postmedia Network Inc. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
  20. Vantuono, William C. (October 30, 2015). "TTC to Bombardier: See you in court". Railway Age. Simmons-Boardman Publishing Inc. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
  21. Douglas John Bowen (2012-09-19). "Bombardier, EMD team up to export locomotives". Railway Age. Retrieved 2018-07-06. The joint venture builds upon a similar collaboration between both companies at Bombardier’s manufacturing site in Ciudad Sahagún, Mexico. Bombardier will manufacture certain components, including underframes and bogies, and assemble the EMD locomotives at its Savli, Gujarat facility in India.
  22. "Bombardier to supply new Guadalajara fleet". Railway Gazette. Mexico. 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2018-07-06. According to the state government, 13 companies responded to the call for tenders where the winning bid of 752⋅2m pesos represents a saving of 24% on the expected cost.
  23. "Bombardier increasing light rail capacity in Guadalajara". Canadian Manufacturing. 2017-03-28. Retrieved 2018-07-06. The TEG-15 LRV is part of Bombardier’s Mexican light rail product line, with more than 100 trains in service in Mexico’s three largest cities: Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City. The project is being managed by teams working out of Bombardier’s Ciudad Sahagún facility in the State of Hidalgo.

See also
  • Media related to Concarril at Wikimedia Commons
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