Hitachi Rail Opens C$30m Toronto Digital Rail Centre Housing SelTrac Generation 9 Development
The five-and-a-half floor centre is Hitachi's global home for digital rail and metro development and its CBTC competence centre, with a C$105m program building AI, 5G and edge computing into SelTrac Gen 9.
Hitachi Rail has officially opened a C$30 million rail and metro technology centre in Toronto, occupying five and a half floors at Consilium Place. The site serves as the company's global centre for digital rail development and houses its Global CBTC Competence Centre, the engineering home of the SelTrac signalling family.
SelTrac, one of the earliest communication-based train control systems in commercial service, is now installed on more than 150 lines in 70 cities. A C$105 million program based in Toronto is developing SelTrac Generation 9, which integrates artificial intelligence, 5G connectivity and edge computing into the signalling platform.
The investment underlines where value is moving in the rail supply industry. Within 48 hours, two of the largest rolling-stock and signalling makers, Hitachi and CRRC, both announced moves that place data layers, diagnostics and AI at the centre of their product stories rather than the vehicles or trackside hardware alone. For transit operators planning fleet and signalling renewals, including commuters systems in Southeast Asia, procurement documents will increasingly bundle long-term data and diagnostics services with the physical assets, and the integration layer between vendor systems and operator back offices becomes a distinct scope of work.