News & Reviews News Wire Wabtec breaks ground on new brake manufacturing plant in Germany NEWSWIRE

Wabtec breaks ground on new brake manufacturing plant in Germany NEWSWIRE

By Angela Cotey | February 7, 2020

| Last updated on November 3, 2020


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An artist's rendering of what Wabtec's new manufacturing plant in Germany may look like.
An artist’s rendering of what Wabtec’s new manufacturing plant in Germany may look like.
Panattoni via Wabtec
BOCHUM, Germany — Wabtec Corporation celebrated the groundbreaking of a more than 200,000 square foot, state-of-the-art green factory for developing and manufacturing brakes, as well as maintaining brakes and couplers for transit vehicles. Once complete, the new facility in Bochum will be a German Sustainable Building Council Gold-certified property, in recognition of its sustainable and innovative design.

“This new building represents a major investment into Wabtec’s capabilities and expertise to deliver green, business-critical products and services for our customers. It will be an environmentally friendly facility focused on producing a variety of transit braking solutions, including segmented and conventional disc applications and brake control systems for customers around the world,” said Lilian Leroux, President of Wabtec’s Transit segment.

“We are excited to break ground on this new facility and leverage our deep history in Germany to bring breakthrough technologies to the industries we serve,” said Dr. Christopher Antes, President Transit Brakes & Safety. “This new facility will provide the space we need to deliver the highest standards of productivity and quality, as well as a future-oriented working environment for our employees. It also is centrally located near Bochum’s universities and rich engineering talent pool.”

Upon completion in the third quarter 2020, the nearly 9 acre site will have a production area, a storage area and office space at Sophie-Opel-Straße 5, 44894 Bochum. The facility is being built by the investor and project developer Panattoni Europe. Designed with sustainability at its core, Wabtec’s site will include a green roof on the administration building, make use of geothermal heating, intelligent light control, photovoltaics as well as offering loading stations for e-cars and -bikes, thus reducing its ecological footprint.

The new site will be part of the new 173 acre center of knowledge for industry and technology MARK 51/7, the redevelopment company Bochum Perspektive 2022 is setting up.

— From a Wabtec news release. Feb. 7, 2020.

7 thoughts on “Wabtec breaks ground on new brake manufacturing plant in Germany NEWSWIRE

  1. Interesting that Wabtec chose to tap into Germany’s skilled workforce, maintained by that country’s tradition of apprenticeship and no layoffs during economic downturns.

  2. Charles,

    E-bikes are not supposed to use bike paths, they’re supposed to operate on the shoulder of the road or in the road because they could be talking about e-cycles(electric motorcycles) as well. If you’re unclear on the concept for charging ev’s, at least in Germany they’ve had days of 100% non-fossil fuel electric grid supply…

  3. 95% of the article is about the building’s supposed ecological correctness. YadaYadaYadaYada. BTW I’m still at a loss to know what’s green about charging automobiles. E-bikes? The next emerging ecological disaster. By this time next year I will have been run off the bike path and into the ditch by one of those beasts.

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