3 ms·

I found it very funny to see these trains parked behind my house. I live in Vienna, but apparently some were assembled here.

• bluGill 3y ago
  Scale factors in assembly are very important for both quality and low costs, so a few assembly lines around the world make sense for trains. Then ship them to where needed. I'm not sure if North America should have assembly lines, but politics means we do. Of course if the US ordered a lot of trains this would change, but a lot means that a line needs to be turning out several completed trains of this size per hour (it would be nice if world public transit was that popular)
  • JAlexoid 3y ago
    US does have assembly lines... You may underestimate the number of trains and rail cars that US needs. Just servicing NYC metro and commuter area would easily make a few assembly lines profitable.
    • bluGill 3y ago
      the US does have them - but I'm not convinced we should - vs building them in say Germany and putting them on a ship. Yes assembly lines are profitable. However less assembly lines that produce more trains allows for efficiency from scale and thus could potentially be even more profitable while selling trains for less. NYC does not have a lot of trains. Sure they are in the thousands, but automotive assembly lines can turn out as many cars in a week as the whole US has. Trains also generally last for 40 years (the London trains in question are older than that). Note that the US has them because of "buy America" rules and not for good reason. Those rules likely increase the costs of trains.