Astra Vagoane Călători

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Astra Vagoane Călători (English: Astra Passenger Coaches) is a Romanian company specialised in the manufacture and repair of various types of rail transportation equipment, located in Arad, Romania.

[edit] History

In the late 19th - early 20th century the city of Arad developed into a thriving industrial center. Taking advance of the increased need for transportation in 1891 Johann Weitzer created a railway coaches and engines factory bearing his name. In 1908 a local company named MARTA (Magyar Automobil Reszveny Tarsasag Arad ) began manufacturing autovehicles first under Westinghouse, then under Austro-Daimler licence. Its buses, trucks and, since 1910, automobiles were the first autovehicles produced on the present day territory of Romania [1] . In 1920 the two companies merged to create the ASTRA group. For some time the new company continued to manufacture autovehicles, car engines and even airplanes, but after 1926 it focused exclusively on rail vehicles and equipment becoming over the time the single most important supplier of passenger and freight coaches for the Romanian state railway carrier CFR.

In the 90's the group encountered some difficulties and was eventually split in two companies, Astra Vagoane Călători and Astra Vagoane Marfă (Astra Freight Coaches). After Astra Vagoane Călători was privatised in 1999 ( 70% of its shares being bought by Trinity Industries [2] ) its situation improved. In 2006 Astra (as well as all other Trinity Industries operations in Europe ) was bought by International Railway Services, a group owned by Romanian businessman Cristian Burci [3] .

[edit] Production

Although its main market remains Romania, Astra's exports have increased in recent years, to nearly 50% of its production [4] . It has contracts with companies such as Siemens and Alstom.