BOMBARDIER has announced that it will not re-open its mothballed US rolling stock assembly plant at Barre in Vermont, and is to sell the site.
Opened in 1981 to help meet the Buy America requirements of federally-funded US rolling stock contracts, the plant was mothballed in November 2002 on the completion of 20 Acela Express high speed trains for Amtrak. At that time Bombardier had said that the facility, which at one time employed around 900 people, could be re-opened if new orders were received.
At part of Bombardier’s programme to trim back European over-capacity, the Amadora plant in Portugal ceased production on May 21, six weeks ahead of schedule. In the UK, Doncaster was due to close at the end of June, six months earlier than planned. Bombardier also confirmed in June that it expected to close its Ammendorf plant in Germany by the end of 2005.
