Škoda Vagonka is finishing with a large expansion in Ostrava, it received over 400 people a year

The company has significantly expanded the number of employees, almost doubling in a year.

The big expansion of Škoda Vagonka in Ostrava is heading to the finals. The rolling stock manufacturer has recently opened a new paint shop, a line with automatic machining centers or automatic welding machines. The expansion of capacity by more than two thirds has also led to a significant increase in the number of employees. The company has hired more than four hundred people in the last year and their number is approaching one thousand.

Škoda Vagonka, which belongs to Škoda Transportation from the PPF Group, today presented a shift in the expansion of the plant to the media and business partners. “Major investments in Ostrava’s Vagonka are part of our Nová Vagonka project, which began 444 days ago. During that time, we have already managed to build the largest portal machining center in Europe. We have spent a total of one billion crowns on the modernization and expansion of the complex and we are creating five hundred new jobs. The project is a symbol of the development of Škoda Vagonka and its growing position on the market,“Said Petr Brzezina, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Škoda Transportation Group.

The new paint shop has a capacity of up to 120 train boxes per year, which is an increase of two thirds compared to the current state. The universal paint shop contains a total of eight workplaces. The new machining centers, in turn, expand the company’s possibilities in the production of rough constructions of rail vehicles, both with a normal gauge and for a wide gauge. “In Ostrava, we are currently working, for example, on the supply of new vehicles for Latvia, the Warsaw metro or the domestic railway. These are electrical units for the South Moravian Region and Czech Railways. At the same time, we are preparing for the project of electrical units for Estonia, “ added Martin Bednarz, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Škoda Vagonka. According to him, it will be possible to take over some projects within the Škoda Transportation Group. In Ostrava, the production of push-pull sets for Czech Railways and 50 cars at 200 km / h are currently finishing.

Billion expansion of the background

The current stage of expanding the production facilities follows a recent event, when Škoda Vagonka put into operation the largest machining center in Europe. It was a unique machine for about 100 million crowns, thanks to which it can machine giant oversized aluminum parts. We have weighed a total of 360 tons of equipment with a length of fifty and a width of ten meters in Ostrava for several months now for the production of subassemblies of rough constructions of railway vehicles for customers in the country and abroad. Thanks to this, production will gradually increase fivefold, because before construction, about 50 rough constructions were produced here annually, and with the new center, Škoda will reach up to 250.

The paint shop and the expansion of the assembly are among the largest billion-dollar expansion events for which the company received investment incentives. Thanks to the purchase of new land and the lease of halls in Vítkovice, Škoda Vagonka doubled the area of ​​its production facilities.