Alstom Ferroviaria


Alstom Ferroviaria S.p.A., formerly known as Fiat Ferroviaria S.p.A., is the Italian division of Alstom. Fiat Ferroviaria S.p.A. was the rail division of automobile manufacturer Fiat. It was founded in 1880 as Società Nazionale Officine di Savigliano. Fiat Ferroviaria began building locomotives in the 1930s. It became part of Fiat in 1970. Fiat Ferroviaria acquired the rail business of SIG of Switzerland in 1995, forming the subsidiary Fiat-Sig.
The company had previously owned Argentine company Materfer until 1998, which now operates as an independent company. In June 2000, Alstom purchased a 51% shareholding.

Overview

During the 1960s and 1970s, Fiat Ferroviaria developed a tilting technology for trains and was the first to produce active tilting trains with the trademark of Pendolino. In Italy, several classes of Pendolinos were adopted starting from 1976, tilting systems including bogies, traction, electric and electronic equipment were ordered by several countries:
In February 1999, Virgin Trains West Coast ordered a fleet of Class 390s from Alstom that incorporated Fiat Ferroviaria tilting technology.
Directly or indirectly, 18 countries throughout the world applied the Italian Fiat Ferroviaria tilting technology to their trains, including the United States and China.