Overview

 
Ansaldo STS is characterized by its long-term operational history and its technological excellence (the Company was set up in Italy and the USA at the mid 1800's, in France at the beginning of 1900's, and invests heavily in R&D activities). It has an extremely high international presence (the group is locally present in 27 countries), and has reached primary positions in its markets of interest (in signalling, for instance, the company has supplied more than half of the high-speed railways in the world excluding Japan). It has special experience in innovative transport  solutions projects such as the automatic metro in Copenhagen, the first driverless and unmanned steel-wheel underground system in the world.
 
Building on its existing product portfolio, and on its strength in innovation , the Company is building its strength in further geographical areas and is consolidating its leadership in those sectors where Ansaldo STS has greatest market presence.
 
In a context of growing international competition and increasing complexity and size of railway and transit projects globally, Ansaldo STS can also act as General Contractor or Lead Contractor providing project management and technological integration of systems, and facilitating project financing for clients worldwide.
 
As General / Lead Contractor, Ansaldo STS provides end to end solutions for timely, successful and on budget turnkey projects of any size or complexity, offering:

• Project Financing
• Build, Operate and Transfer  (BOT)
• Design, Build, Operate and Maintain (DBOM)
• Systems integration of complete electrical and mechanical scope
• Track works
• Traction electrification

 

 
 
To achieve this successfully, the company is organized in two business units:
 
Transport Solutions Business Unit and the Signalling Business Unit .
 
The Transport Solutions Business Unit operates in the design, installation, integration, testing, commissioning and maintenance of “turnkey” railway and transit  systems. It aims to consolidate its Italian leadership and to increase its European market share by taking advantage of the competencies developed in the segment of Metro Systems.
 
Signalling is designed to ensure safety and reliability of railway and metro transportation, as well as to optimize the efficiency and productivity of these infrastructures allowing operators to increase the speed and efficiency of railway transport in compliance with safety regulations, and to reduce the minimum distance between trains (headways).
 
The strategic objective in terms of signalling is to strengthen the areas where the company is already present and to penetrate new markets, in particular increasing its participation in the Asian / Pacific area, China and India, the two latter being the countries investing the most in mass transit infrastructures today. In Western Europe, one of the main targets is to strengthen the presence in some of those countries offering significant  rail and transit opportunities. 
 
Ansaldo STS focuses on a development strategy which promotes synergies between the company's two business units. The Transport Solutions Business Unit can utilize the strong international distribution of Signalling to access new markets, mainly in the automatic metro segment. As a consequence, the Signalling Unit can increase its product sales due to new joint offers with the Transport Solutions Unit.
 
Ansaldo STS has adopted ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) technology, the new interoperable European signalling system which allows trains to travel through differing railway networks without changing engine/drivers or rolling stock at the borders for reasons of signalling incompatibility. At the same time, the safety, management and efficiency of traffic are improved. ERTMS represents the future of railway signalling systems and Ansaldo STS is world leader in both of its applications: level 1 & level 2.

Ansaldo STS has also developed a CBTC (Communications Based Traffic Control) technology compliant with emergent international metro/underground standards. This development supports full interoperability on metro lines to provide Metro operators with the kind of commercial and operational benefits already being delivered on national networks by ERTMS.