The CLIC® Chronicles: Meet Stadler - the Swiss railway giant going green

Over the last 30 years, Stadler has grown from a small-scale, local train builder, employing just 18 people in 1989, into one of the leading providers of mobility solutions and railway rolling stock, with more than 13,000 staff spread across 21 countries. Headquartered in Bussnang, Switzerland, Stadler offers an extensive portfolio of trains, locomotives, light rail vehicles and cogwheel trains, as well as services and signalling solutions, to customers in Switzerland, the EU, Asia and the US. 

We spoke to CEO Peter Spuhler about sustainability and the development of CO₂-free rail vehicles that use green powertrains in place of diesel engines.

Stadler’s products are already part of the shift to a cleaner economy. Over the next five years, what else do you think you can do to further contribute to the sustainability transition?

We decided early on to offer our customers a variety of green powertrains, from electric, to battery, to hydrogen or fuel cell powertrains. We can also combine all these powertrains as hybrid solutions. Our goal, and that of our customers, is to contribute significantly to the decarbonisation of rail transport.

We are in the fortunate position of being able to develop and build an intrinsically sustainable product. In terms of emissions per passenger kilometre, rail remains one of the most environmentally friendly means of transport. In order to make an even greater contribution to a clean economy, we are continuing to focus on optimising our electric trains and alternative drives such as hydrogen or batteries.

We see further potential in digitisation. Increasing automation of train operation not only allows trains to be operated in an energy-optimised way, but also creates more capacity. Stadler runs an international centre of excellence for the digitisation of vehicles and railways in Wallisellen near Zurich, which it significantly upgraded last year through targeted acquisitions, and transferred into a separate “signalling” division.

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Does Stadler have a CO₂ reduction target and a net zero target?

We are committed to net-zero emissions targets and support the climate goals of Switzerland and the Paris Climate Agreement. Compared to 2019, we aim to halve our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieve climate-neutral production in our plants by 2050.

What measures has Stadler taken to reduce the use of materials? Do your customers ask for sustainable materials such as green aluminium – as the use of steel is reduced?

We try to close the materials loop as best we can – we follow the circular economy approach. This means that right from the vehicle design phase we try to avoid mixing materials in components, in order to facilitate the process of dismantling, sorting and collecting these materials at the end of their service life. In this way, the materials can be reused in their highest quality state. Calculations have shown that less than 5% of the material in our vehicles cannot be recycled. Our goal is to continuously increase the recycling rate by consciously promoting recyclable materials. Any new technology on recyclable materials is incorporated into our product life cycle process.

Most of Stadler’s passenger vehicles are made of lightweight aluminium, which improves energy efficiency. Where agreed with the customer, we use recycled aluminium, which requires only 5% of the energy needed as compared with the production of primary aluminium. Our customers are increasingly focussing on sustainable materials and we are striving to meet these demands.

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What is your assessment of hydrogen and battery-power technology? And what innovations can we expect in future?

For sustainable mobility, the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of a rail vehicle’s drive system are of crucial importance – we are one of the technology and market leaders in the field of alternative drives and are continuously strengthening this position. The central theme of our sustainability efforts is on the development of low-emission drive technologies and thus the avoidance of trains that run on fossil fuels. We want to offer passengers the possibility to travel sustainably even on non-electrified routes.