Stadler Salt Lake City expansion opens in Utah

The Stadler Salt Lake City expansion has officially opened as Stadler US marks 10 years of building trains in the United States.

Held at the beginning of July, the celebration brought together rail industry representatives, government officials and international guests. Swiss President Guy Parmelin also attended the event, which marked a decade of Stadler’s activity, partnerships and growth in the U.S. market.

On July 1, Stadler unveiled the 245,000-square-foot manufacturing expansion⁠ of its Salt Lake City site. With the added space, the facility now covers 475,000 square feet of manufacturing area. The investment is expected to create up to 300 new local jobs, including some youth apprenticeship positions.

Stadler Salt Lake City expansion and U.S. manufacturing

Martin Ritter, CEO Stadler North America, said the milestone reflected the company’s long-term commitment in the United States.

“This milestone reflects not only how far we’ve come over the past decade, but also our long-term commitment to building trains, creating jobs, and investing in American manufacturing,”

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The enlarged campus adds several production and support areas, including a welding hall⁠, a blasting booth, an assembly hall, additional warehouse space and an electrical pre-assembly hall. Stadler said these facilities will strengthen its production capacity and help the company serve customers across North America.

Peter Spuhler, Chairman of Stadler’s Board of Directors, described the U.S. market as strategically important for the company’s global development.

“Today is a day of pride, of gratitude. Ten years ago, we made a strategic decision to invest and to build our own factory in the United States. We believed in the potential of the American market. Over the past decade, Stadler has established itself as a true American train manufacturer. Our success was built step by step, project by project, customer by customer.”

New CNC hall marks next expansion phase

The event also included a ceremonial groundbreaking for a future CNC hall. The new hall will be used to cut side, floor and roof panels made from aluminium extrusions with computer-controlled machines before the panels move on to welding. Stadler described this as the start of the next phase of its U.S. expansion.

Representatives of the Federal Railroad Administration and the State of Utah spoke during the ceremony. In their remarks, they pointed to Stadler’s role as an innovative rail vehicle manufacturer and employer in the United States.

Guy Parmelin’s attendance also highlighted the economic and innovation links between Switzerland and the United States.

Stadler’s rail projects from Utah

Stadler has manufactured trains in Utah since 2016. The company first worked from a rented facility before opening its permanent manufacturing site in Salt Lake City in 2019⁠. Stadler US now employs 674 people locally and continues to expand both its workforce and its production capabilities.

The Salt Lake City plant is involved in the delivery of major rail projects in different parts of the country. These include trains for Caltrain in California, Metra in Chicago, TexRail in Fort Worth, Texas, and MARTA in Atlanta.

Stadler’s Salt Lake City site has been built up as a U.S. production base since the company moved operations to a permanent facility near the airport in 2019. At that time, Stadler said the 230,000-square-foot building stood on a 62-acre site and included a rail spur to the U.S. national rail network, along with a 2/3-mile test track for commissioning and dynamic testing.

The new expansion adds to a manufacturing footprint that has already moved more production work into Utah. In 2025, Stadler opened a 50,000-square-foot welding hall at the campus, where aluminum car bodies are welded on site rather than shipped from European welding facilities. Stadler said that move increased domestic content in its trains to around 80%.

After the formal programme, media representatives and guests were taken on behind-the-scenes tours of the facility. The tours included active production lines and major projects currently underway at the site.