Chinese rolling stock manufacturer CRC partners with tangerine

Having worked studiously on rail design projects over the last 12 months, tangerine is pleased to publicly announce their strategic partnership with Chinese rolling stock manufacturer, CRC (CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles).

CRC are a division of the world’s largest rolling stock manufacturer CRRC and produce a variety of rolling stock including; locomotives, passenger cars, multiple units, rapid transit and light rail vehicles for customers both in China and abroad.

In 2016, CRC were looking to expand their international clientele, but they understood that in order to do so, they needed help from an external design consultancy to extend, develop and enhance their internal design capabilities.

After successfully completing a year probation period, tangerine was selected as a strategic partner to CRC from three competing consultancies. Through the partnership, tangerine’s growing rail design team have been working closely with CRC’s team to help them to pitch for work internationally, successfully winning contracts in China and South-East Asia.

As part of the strategic partnership, a co-creation office has been established at CRC’s offices in Changchun, Northern China, with tangerine’s designers regularly going over for periods of up to 3 months. The benefit of co-location has allowed information, knowledge and skills sharing, will the aim of helping to further develop CRC’s internal design processes and capabilities. Members of tangerine’s project leadership team also regularly hold talks and workshops with CRC’s senior management team to help them to utilise innovation, strategy and design more effectively in their organisation.

The benefit of working within a partnership is that it enables tangerine’s designers to gain a deeper understanding of the long-term goals of CRC, so that design opportunities for new train fleets and services can be found, whilst being attuned to the long-term growth objectives of the company.

So far tangerine and CRC have collaborated on 7 trains, including Maglev trains in Qingyuan, Metro trains for the airport city line in Xian and a high-profile high-speed train of national importance, launching in 2022.

The ongoing partnership aims to produce 5 trains a year, with the tangerine team working on the exterior and interior design of both new and refurbished trains.

We look forward to revealing the exciting work that has resulted from the collaboration between tangerine and CRC in the near future.