Kawasaki Rail Car (KRC), a global manufacturer of commuter rail and light rail cars, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Kawasaki entered the U.S. market in 1979 and initially complied with Buy America requirements using the manufacturing facilities of its partners or temporary facilities. KRC was created in 1989 as a permanent U.S. manufacturing facility to serve the American market. KRC has its U.S. corporate headquarters and a manufacturing facility in Yonkers, NY, where it has been located for several decades.

In 2002, Kawasaki expanded and established a plant in Lincoln, NE, as a state-of-the-art rail car shell manufacturing facility, the first in the U.S. with the capability of building different types of rail cars. The rail car plant added more than 600 jobs to the passenger rail car manufacturing industry.

Over the past 30 years, Kawasaki has been awarded contracts to supply more than 4,300 new rail cars, which means that the company has replaced more than 20 percent of U.S. passenger rail cars. Currently, one in every five passenger rail cars in the U.S. is made by Kawasaki.

KRC is part of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (KHI), headquartered in Kobe, Japan.