A Baltimore Light Rail train built by BBC at Convention Center station in 2010.
(AndrewHorne, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
BROWN, BOBVERI & CIE (BBC)
Brown, Boveri & Cie. (Brown, Boveri & Company; BBC) was a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies. It was founded in Baden bei Zürich, in 1891 by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri who worked at the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon. In 1970 BBC took over the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon and in 1988 it merged with ASEA to form ABB.
U.S. Market
Throughout the 1970s, Brown Boveri struggled to expand into the US market. The company negotiated a joint venture with Rockwell, the American manufacturer of high-tech military and aerospace applications, but the deal collapsed when the two companies could not agree on financial terms. Brown Boveri had a handful of major U.S. customers as its clients, among them large utilities such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and American Electric Power's Nuclear Plant in southwest Michigan DC Cook Unit 2 steam turbine. Brown Boveri's American market share was low considering the company's international standing (North American sales accounted for only 3.5% of total sales in 1974 and 1975), and the company continued to seek entry into U.S. markets.
Baltimore Light Rail
The Baltimore Light RailLink (formerly Baltimore Light Rail, also known simply as the "Light Rail") is a light rail system serving Baltimore, Maryland, United States, and its northern and southern suburbs and used BBC rolling stock. It is operated by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA Maryland). In downtown Baltimore, it uses city streets. Outside the central portions of the city, the line is built on private rights-of-way, mostly from the defunct Northern Central Railway, Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad and Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway. The system had a ridership of 3,262,100, or about 14,600 per weekday, as of the third quarter of 2023.
Merger
In January 1988, Brown Boveri merged with ASEA to form Asea Brown Boveri.