85.7 F
San Fernando
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Rail Car Plant Rolls Into A.V.

The decision last week by Kinkisharyo International LCC to construct a $50 million manufacturing facility in Palmdale to make light-rail cars for the L.A. County Metropolitan Transit Authority will be a big boost to the Antelope Valley economy. The Japanese manufacturer has a timeline of early 2016 to begin work on the roughly 400,000-square-foot plant on 60 acres it plans to acquire at Avenue M and Sierra Highway. In the meantime, the company will make rail cars at a temporary plant in Palmdale leased from Los Angeles World Airports, the operator of Los Angeles International Airport. Officials in the Antelope Valley hailed the decision, which will result in the creation of nearly 200 manufacturing jobs in an area with high unemployment. “This is a great story for us,” said Kim Maevers, president of the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance. “We have this great investment in manufacturing because the Antelope Valley is accessible and an affordable place to do business in California.” Officials also noted that Kinkisharyo is just one of several Asian companies locating in the Antelope Valley. In neighboring Lancaster, Chinese company BYD Motors Inc. in April delivered the first two electric buses made in the United States. That same month, Palmdale announced that Anywind Wind Power Electric Inc., a South Korean company, would open its U.S. headquarters in the city and take over a vacant industrial building to make wind turbines. Kinkisharyo, the U.S. arm of Kinki Sharyo Co. Ltd. of Osaka, has had its eye on the Antelope Valley for more than a year as a manufacturing site after winning a contract to make rail cars for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, better known as Metro. In April, the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners recommended the L.A. City Council approve a five-year lease valued at $4.6 million for 250,000 square feet in two buildings LAWA owns. The Council may vote on the lease this month, said Coby King, a Kinkisharyo spokesman. The leased airport buildings will allow Kinkisharyo, which will employ more than 100 employees at the site, to meet a goal to deliver the first 78 rail cars by the end of next year before opening its permanent plant. “These are the kinds of high-quality jobs that people hoped would come to L.A. County from this contract,” King said. Final assembly The light-rail contract is the first the Japanese company has had with Metro. It had previously supplied rail cars for public transportation projects in Dallas, Phoenix and other U.S. cities. The Metro job includes an initial contract for 78 light rail vehicles and four options for another 157 vehicles for $591 million, giving the contract a possible total value of $890 million for 235 cars. The cars would operate on the Blue, Gold and Expo lines and a planned extension of the Expo line down Crenshaw Boulevard to LAX. To get the contract, Kinkisharyo agreed that it would perform final assembly of the rail cars in Los Angeles County. In the temporary LAWA facility, which will be located at Site 9, a former aircraft manufacturing center, final assembly will be done on car shells that are made in Osaka. (The stainless steel shell is the basic rail car structure minus the chassis, windows and other interior improvements.) The final assembly process involves the delivery of the shells and the rail truck, the piece that fits beneath the shell and connects to the rails. Workers first attached the cabin shell to the rail truck and then install the seats, lighting, heating, air conditioning, ventilation and propulsion systems. Finally, the cars are tested and delivered to Metro. With Metro exercising the option for the additional cars above the initial order of 78, the company will meets its agreement to manufacture car shells in the U.S. “Metro is holding up their end of the deal and Kinkisharyo is holding theirs,” King said. When the permanent facility starts operating, workers will manufacture the shells through a process that involves bending and connecting metal pieces together either by welding or with rivets. That is followed by adding the interior improvements, testing and delivery. “They will build it out and then paint it,” King said. “Except for the chassis a large proportion of the work will be done here in L.A. County.” Kinkisharyo is on or ahead of schedule to produce a test pilot car for Metro and hiring employees for the temporary Palmdale facility. About two dozen people for supervisor roles have already done several months of training in Osaka in preparation to get the Palmdale factory up and running. The pilot car is scheduled to be delivered from Japan by Oct. 19 with the company starting to assemble cars after that date. Metro will give its OK on the pilot car while still in Osaka and it will then be disassembled for delivery to Palmdale where the car will be reassembled. Company and city officials expect the construction of the plant to go smoothly. The 60 acres Kinkisharyo is buying are part of a parcel of 500 acres owned by Palmdale so there is no need to obtain a conditional use permit or zoning change to put up the building, said Dave Walter, economic development manager for Palmdale. The city is currently doing a site plan review on the layout of the building, he added. What’s more, the site is on empty land far from homes and adjacent to where Palmdale wants to build a new natural gas-fired power plant. Asian cluster Walter hailed the investment by Kinkisharyo as a signal that manufacturers recognize that the city and Antelope Valley, with a long and storied history in aerospace, is a flexible and welcoming place to do business. “It shows some interest in manufacturing coming back to California and the United States,” he said. Walter also pointed to the decision of BYD Motors, a division of battery and electric vehicle manufacturer BYD Co. Ltd., based in Shenzhen, to open its 120,000-square-foot bus assembly plant and a battery pack assembly facility in a separate 8,000-square-foot building in Lancaster in 2013. BYD is contracted to produce up to 25 buses for Metro. The company also made two buses for the Antelope Valley Transit Authority. The 60 employees can turn out a 60-seat bus in two days with the potential to produce 60 buses this year alone if demand calls for it. BYD has plans for a workforce of 100 by the end of the year, and 200 workers by the end of 2015. By assisting these companies with their plans, the hope is to see more jobs added in the region, said Maevers of the Economic Alliance. “Our goal is to leverage those assets and turn those into productive opportunities for our workforce,” she added.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Featured Articles

Related Articles