As Group CEO of Hitachi Rail, I always look for ways to improve our business and provide value for our customers, their passengers, and the communities we serve.
2022 has been a landmark year for the company as we have worked to innovate and deliver on significant milestones, including the planned acquisition of Thales GTS and the launch of our new digital and smart mobility business.
Deliver on our green promises
One of our main priorities has been to deliver on our commitment to sustainability. We continue to deliver against our decarbonisation strategy, including:
The launch of Europe’s first fleet of tri-mode battery trains
A partnership with A2A
Italy’s Energy Utility, to generate 60% of our Italian manufacturing operations with solar power
The path to meet our net zero targets will be long, but I’m proud of the work our teams are doing to invest and deliver on our commitments for customers and communities alike.
Pioneers of new digital and Smart Mobility capabilities
In 2022, we launched our Digital Value Engine - our strategy to deliver against our Mid Term Management plan objectives. By digitalising how we work, innovating new digital solutions to help existing customers, and pioneering new Smart Mobility technologies to serve new adjacent markets.
This strategy included launching our Smart Mobility business, comprising smart ticketing, real-time information updates, and integrated multimodal traffic management.
Our 360Pass mobile app in Genoa & Trentino, Italy and the launch of our Lumada Intelligent Mobility Management suite are just a couple of examples of the innovative technologies we are implementing to make train travel more seamless, sustainable and convenient for public transport passengers and operators around the world.
With software at the core of our signalling business and new digital self-powered predictive maintenance solutions coming online for our rolling stock business, I’m excited to see what our teams will achieve in the year ahead.
Major milestones in 2022
Overall, I am proud of our progress at Hitachi Rail in 2022 and am confident that we will continue to find new and innovative ways to reduce our environmental impact and make a positive difference in the world.
Our core signalling and rolling stock businesses also had a banner year. We won major contracts in Italy, Canada, and the Philippines, to provide turnkey, fast and environmentally-friendly mass transportation solutions. We also marked the delivery of Bangkok’s congestion busting Redline mass transit system, and the expansion of Italy's iconic ETR1000 very high-speed train into France and Spain.
We also celebrated the one-year anniversary of the UK’s Lumo fleet of electric trains, which have already displaced air travel between London & Edinburgh with zero emission travel, and made progress on constructing our new train factory in the USA.
Accelerating into 2023
I want to thank the Hitachi Rail teams, our customers, suppliers and all community partners involved in helping us to deliver the above projects and the many, many more important achievements that defined the last 12 months.
I do not doubt that 2023 will have its disruptions and challenges. Still, as we continue to progress on our planned acquisition of Thales GTS, I am confident that Hitachi Rail will only expand its ability to deliver more seamless, sustainable transportation to its customers worldwide.
We are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.
I am confident that we will continue to successfully deliver on our green promises, integrate Thales GTS into our business, and continue to pioneer new digital and Smart Mobility capabilities that will transform how cities deal with congestion, cost and carbon emissions for generations to come.
