Hitachi Rail celebrated a new Hagerstown Plant opening with a $100 million investment, emphasizing advanced AI-driven technologies and digital capabilities. Its 307,000-square-foot facility is poised to transform U.S. railcar manufacturing and local regional economic growth.

This is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

Hitachi Hagerstown Plant Launches $100 Million Rail Facility
Entrance of Hitachi Rail’s $100 million railcar assembly plant on Halfway Boulevard just outside Hagerstown, Md. Sept. 8, 2025.

It included light displays, panel presentations, and tours of partially assembled subway cars. Government guests and guests from Hitachi emphasized the facility’s role in renewing passenger rail and building a low-carbon manufacturing center.

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Digital Technology at the Core

Within the facility, both safety and quality controls run on artificial intelligence. At night, Boston Dynamics robot “dogs” prowl the factory floor, searching for defects as minute as 0.1 millimeter in size. At the same time, sensors armed with AI reduce workplace accidents by tracking human presence near vehicles.

It is also a carbon-neutral facility and a zero-landfill-waste facility. It currently employs 200 people, with staff projected to hit 460 in 2027, delivering $350 million a year in economic impact in supporting 1,300 regional jobs.

Contracts for the Hagerstown Plant

Hagerstown Plant produces 256 vehicles for Washington Metro in a $713 million contract and 78 vehicles for Baltimore’s SubwayLink in a $300 million contract. Both SEPTA in Philadelphia and Ontario Line in Toronto are also likely to utilize the facility.

Therefore, the facility hosts more than $2.2 billion in railcar assembly projects. Certain assembly was carried out in the closed Miami facility of Hitachi, yet Hagerstown remains the only U.S. railcar assembly facility of the company.

Innovation and Customer Experience

A highlight of the facility is the Customer Experience Center where customers are able to see a working version of Hitachi’s HMAX AI platform, developed on NVIDIA technology. Demonstration applications include predictive maintenance solutions, cab simulators, and passenger flow optimization solutions for peak city transit lines.

Additionally, the factory floor is equipped with cranes and Automated Guided Vehicles for efficient assembly. Assembled cars go through rigorous testing on a track on premises before entering service in major U.S. cities.

Why is the Hagerstown Plant significant in U.S. rail production?

Hagerstown Plant is the sole U.S. railcar assembly plant of Hitachi, providing advanced, AI-enabled production for transportation networks while maintaining thousands of domestic jobs and spurring local economic development.

Which projects will Hagerstown Plant supply?

It will build railcars for the Washington Metro, the Baltimore SubwayLink, the Philadelphia Market-Frankford line, and the Toronto Ontario Line, in contracts worth more than $2.2 billion.

How does the new facility of Hitachi ensure safety and sustainability?

Hitachi integrates collision-avoidance AI, robotic inspections, and predictive maintenance. While the facility operates on carbon-neutral and zero-landfill-waste specifications in an attempt to limit environmental impact.

Source, photo: www.railwayage.com

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