Ansaldo STS

History

The company was founded in 2006 through the merger of several major international railway companies. The company’s namesake comes from the Italian company Gio. Ansaldo & C., founded in 1853 in Genoa, Italy by Giovanni Ansaldo. Gio. Ansaldo & C.began as a steam locomotive producer, which diversified into shipbuilding and electrical and nuclear energy production.

In 1881 the US company Union Switch & Signal (US&S) was founded by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from the assets of the Interlocking Switch & Signal Company (interlocking controls) and the Union Electric Signal Company. The latter was founded by the American engineer and inventor William Robinson, the father of track circuit systems. In 1988 US&S merged with Ansaldo STS.

In Europe, Ansaldo STS expanded acquiring the French company Compagnie des Signaux pour Chemins de fer (CSE) in 1996. Founded in 1902 by Mr. Fernand Cumont with the support of the financial group Empain, CSE built the first lines of the Paris metro: the maintenance of these lines continues until today. In 1920 CSE (independent since 1912) was renamed into Company and Business Electrical Signals (CSEE), concentrating on rail signaling and electrical manufacturing, contributing to create SAGEM and later (1996) entering in the Ansaldo Signal group.

In 1993 the parent company Ansaldo SpA was merged into the Finmeccanica holding, a state-owned entity privatized during the same year. In 2001, Ansaldo SpA’s transportation business was separated and divided into three companies: AnsaldoBreda (rolling stock manufacturer); Ansaldo Segnalamento Ferroviario (signaling and rail traffic control automation); Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari (transport systems design construction and maintenance). Ansaldo Segnalamento Ferroviario became the parent company of Ansaldo Signal (railway signalling), the owner of Union Switch & Signal and CSEE.

In 2006 Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari and Ansaldo Signal merged. It began trading on the Milan Stock exchange, with 60% of its shares publicly held and 40% owned by Finmeccanica S.p.A. Both companies had their roots in the Ansaldo engineering conglomerate which was gradually absorbed by Finmeccanica. Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari was created in 2000, acquiring certain units of Ansaldo Trasporti (which had been fully integrated into Finmeccanica) the following year. The creation of Ansaldo STS was followed by a partial IPO in March 2006.

On February 24, 2015 Hitachi completed an agreement to acquire Finmeccanica’s share of Ansaldo STS, and initiate a tender offer for the remaining shares of the company. In occasion of the Ordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting on November 2, Hitachi Rail Italy Investment completed the acquisition of the 40% of the share capital of Ansaldo STS. During the first meeting of the new Board of Directors, chaired by Alistair Dormer, Stefano Siragusa has been confirmed as Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of the Company, with the powers to manage the Company and the Group.

On March 2015, after the Public Tender Offer launch on the society and after the purchase of other shares at 10.5 euros each, Hitachi Rail Italy Investments arrived to 50.7% of the share capital.

Stefano Siragusa, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of the Company, resigned on March 31, 2016 and he remained in charge until May 13, 2016 when, on the occasion of the Shareholders’ General Meeting the new Board of Directors has been elected. On May 24, the new Board appointed Andrew Barr as new Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Ansaldo STS. Andrew Barr was also granted the operational powers necessary for the management of the Company and the Group.

Operations

The company's operations are split into two divisions: Freight Rail and Passenger Railway / Mass Transit. Major projects involving Ansaldo STS and its predecessor companies include the Copenhagen Metro, where it is responsible for the provision of rolling stock, Automatic Train Control, SCADA and other services; and signalling on LGV Est in France and High Speed 1 in the United Kingdom. The company also managed projects for signalling, train control and/or maintenance for the Metro systems of Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Milan, Hong Kong, Naples, Shenyang, India, and Thessaloniki.

High-Speed rail

Ansaldo STS commissioned the first high-speed rail signaling system (TVM) for the first LGV line in France, in 1981, connecting Paris and Lyon. In 2005, Ansaldo STS set another landmark with the first high speed line running on ERTMS Level 2 (European Rail Traffic Management System) between Rome and Naples, Italy.

As of 2013 over half of all high speed lines worldwide (excluding Japan) are equipped with Ansaldo STS signaling solutions.

Main Lines and freight

In Europe, the company played a key role in the development and upgrade of ERTMS (level 1 and 2), leading to the interoperability of different countries' rail networks.

In the United States Ansaldo STS has supported the freight rail industry, dating back over 130 years. Ansaldo STS has products and systems with every Class I railroad in North America.

In Australia Ansaldo STS has supported the freight rail industry for more than 20 years and has most recently developed automated train management technology to support fully autonomous heavy-haul, long-distance rail systems and advanced signalling and telecommunications systems featuring satellite positioning.

Mass transit

Ansaldo STS's transit control systems build upon traditional signaling technology for a new generation of more advanced systems, i.e.:

Communications Based Train Control (CBTC)

A continuous, two way radio-based communication between wayside and carborne controllers used to determine train position and enforce movement authorities. The communication between adjacent zones, interlockings and carborne controllers supports safe optimized headways and maximizes system capacity.

Driverless Automatic Train Control (ATC)

Driverless ATC adds extended capability to proven ATC, ATO and ATP technology. Ansaldo STS delivered the first fully driverless train control solution to be certified under the strict European Cenelec safety standards on the Copenhagen (Denmark) Metro in 2002, winning subsequent contracts in Rome, Milan, Brescia, Thessaloniki, Riyadh, Taipei, and Honolulu.

Conventional metros and light rail

Ansaldo STS provides technology for traditional track circuit profile-based metro systems to "drive-on-sight" street running light rail systems to the major urban centers across the United States, Europe and other countries.

Planning and supervision

Computer Aided Dispatching (CAD) system was developed by Union Switch & Signal at the Union Railroad Company in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, in 1966 starting the computer-aided dispatching in the industry.

Today Ansaldo STS adopts the Optimizing Traffic Planner as a late successor of the 1966 CAD. OTP is an advanced planning engine that solves complex logistics problems under changing operating conditions to maximize capacity and increase average velocity. Computational agents respond in real-time to updated CAD and field data, issuing new movement plans that account for current conditions and all operating rules and constraints.

Applied off-line, OTP can minimize inherent conflict within a new timetable before the timetable is used in service. Applied on-line, OTP can produce significant capacity gains across a large freight oriented network.

Components

The company provides on-board and wayside components and systems, such as interlocking (MicroLok II), track circuits, switch machines (M-style), traditional and LED signals, Eurobalise, vital relays, hot wheel detectors, highway crossing mechanisms.

Investments in consolidated companies

• ANSALDO STS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD - Australia - 100%

• ANSALDO STS SWEDEN AB - Svezia - 100%

• ANSALDO STS UK LTD - Regno Unito 100%

• ACELEC Société par actions simplifiée - Francia 100%

• ANSALDO STS ESPANA SA - Spagna 100%

• ANSALDO STS BEIJING LTD - Cina 80%

• ANSALDO STS HONG KONG LTD - Cina 100%

• ANSALDO STS FRANCE Société par actions simplifiée - Francia 100%

• UNION SWITCH & SIGNAL INC - USA 100%

• ANSALDO STS MALAYSIA SDN BH - Malesia 100%

• ANSALDO STS CANADA INC - Canada 100%

• ANSALDO STS USA INC - USA 100% Dd • ANSALDO STS USA INTERNATIONAL CO - USA 100%

• ANSALDO STS TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS INDIA PVT LTD - India 100%

• ANSALDO STS DEUTSCHLAND GMBH - Germania 100%

• ANSALDO RAILWAY SYSTEM TRADING (BEIJING) Ltd - Cina 100%

• ANSALDO STS SOUTHERN AFRICA PTY LTD - Botswana 100%