Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wabtec Corporation is one of America’s largest rail-technology companies. The company reported $11.2 billion in sales for 2025 and operates in more than 50 countries. Its experience in India offers a useful example of how an American industrial company can build a substantial long-term business in the country—not simply by exporting products, but by manufacturing locally, developing suppliers and building a service organization around an important Indian customer.
How a Pittsburgh rail-technology company built a localized manufacturing and service platform in one of the world’s largest rail markets
Wabtec’s modern India story is anchored by a landmark 2015 agreement with Indian Railways. The $2.5 billion public-private partnership called for 1,000 fuel-efficient Evolution Series diesel-electric locomotives and included construction of a manufacturing plant at Marhowra in Bihar, a state in eastern India. Production began there in 2018. Wabtec said in 2023 that the plant could produce 120 locomotives annually, while the program had developed a substantial local supplier footprint. The company has described localization and local manufacturing as central to competing successfully in India.
That strategy is continuing to deepen in 2026. On January 15, Wabtec and Indian Railways began locomotive service operations at a maintenance shed in Siliguri, West Bengal. The facility is designed to support 250 Wabtec Evolution Series locomotives used on freight routes serving India’s northeastern states. Wabtec is responsible for technical supervision, maintenance practices, materials and warehouse management, logistics, shed control and remote diagnostics.
The Siliguri operation is notable for another reason: instead of building an entirely separate facility, Wabtec is working through existing Indian Railways infrastructure and personnel. It joins maintenance operations at Roza, Gandhidham and Gooty. Together, Wabtec says these locations will service Indian Railways’ fleet of Wabtec locomotives. For an American manufacturer, this illustrates how a product sale can evolve into a decades-long lifecycle-services business.
Wabtec’s Indian business also now extends well beyond freight locomotives. On March 13, 2026, the company announced contracts to supply more than 680 “pantographs”—the equipment that transfers electric power from overhead lines to trains—for six commuter-rail and metro programs. The orders cover Chennai Metro Phase II, Mumbai Metro Lines 4, 5 and 6, Indian Railways’ MEMU trains and the Vande Bharat Sleeper program. Wabtec will manufacture them at its transit facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu in southern India, with deliveries scheduled to begin later this year. The orders demonstrate how the company has positioned its Indian operations to participate in the country’s rapid investment in urban transit and railway electrification as a local manufacturer.
Exporting from India
There is also an export dimension. In June 2025, India’s prime minister flagged off Wabtec locomotives manufactured at Marhowra for export to Rio Tinto company in the country of Guinea. That milestone showed that an investment initially built around the Indian market could develop into a manufacturing base serving customers outside India as well.
For American executives, Wabtec’s experience offers a broader lesson. India is often approached primarily as a sales market or a source of lower-cost engineering talent. Wabtec has pursued something more integrated: local manufacturing, product adaptation, supplier development, government partnership, after-sales service and, increasingly, exports. Its progress in 2026 suggests that the strategy is still expanding. In a market where relationships, localization and long-term commitment matter, Wabtec demonstrates what a mature American industrial presence in India can look like.
