Editing Hornell, New York (section)

=== Hornell in the post-railroad period (1960–present) ===
Hornell has struggled to regain its former prosperity. The population is half what it was in 1960, and still declining. Passenger service, in severe decline, ended completely by 1970. (The former station has been refurbished and, since 2006, is the Hornell Erie Depot Museum.)  The railroad came upon further hard times as trucking picked up more and more of the freight business. In October 1960, the Erie merged with the [[Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad|Lackawanna]] to form the [[Erie Lackawanna Railway|Erie Lackawanna]]. Diesel engines, replacing older steam engines, required less maintenance;<ref name=Cornish/> consequently, many of the staff were laid off. The Erie Accounting Office, in Hornell, was closed and its work transferred to the Lackawanna headquarters in [[Scranton, Pennsylvania]]. In 1972, flooding from [[Hurricane Agnes]] destroyed about {{convert|200|mi|km}} of roadbed along the [[Canisteo River]], removing all hope of reoperating the railroad line southeast of Hornell. The Erie Lackawanna filed for bankruptcy soon after.

[[File:Hornell station - July 2013.jpg|right|thumb|The Hornell Erie Depot Museum, photographed in July&nbsp;2013]]

The former Erie repair shops were completely closed for years. They were later reopened to service [[Electro-Motive Diesel|EMD]] diesels and perform bodywork and painting. Yet later, they were operated by [[General Electric]] for a short time, followed by [[Morrison-Knudsen]].

Today, the Hornell shops are a major employer, serving as [[Alstom]]'s main North American assembly and manufacturing site, at which AC traction motors, railway cars, and passenger locomotives are produced. Car bodies are shipped [[Complete knock down|disassembled]] from [[São Paulo]], [[Brazil]], and assembled in Hornell. Alstom won a contract worth $194 million to completely overhaul [[PATCO Speedline]]'s [[light rail]] fleet, beginning in 2011.<ref>{{cite press release |title=PATCO's entire metro fleet to be modernised between Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey |date=June 2, 2011 |publisher=Alstom |url=http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/2011/2/A-contract-valued-at-around-140-million-euros-in-the-US/ |access-date=2013-06-16 |archive-date=2013-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130414162742/http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/2011/2/A-contract-valued-at-around-140-million-euros-in-the-US/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2013, the facility was contracted to build 34 light rail vehicles for [[OC Transpo]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Vantuono|first1=William C.|title=Alstom finalizes Ottawa LRT contract|work=[[Railway Age]]|publisher=Simmons-Boardman Publishing Inc.|date=February 14, 2013}}</ref>  In 2020, the plant began production of [[Amtrak]]'s second generation [[Acela Express|Acela]] high-speed trains.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Amtrak puts $2 billion On the Line
|first=Ted
|last=Mann
|newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]]
|date=May 13, 2019
|page=A3}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title=FRA approves move of high-speed train from Hornell to Colorado for Testing| newspaper=[[The Evening Tribune (Hornell)|The Evening Tribune]] |date=Jan 22, 2020 |location=Hornell, NY | url=https://www.eveningtribune.com/news/20200122/fra-approves-move-of-high-speed-train-from-hornell-to-colorado| access-date=February 1, 2021| archive-date=September 22, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922051515/https://www.eveningtribune.com/news/20200122/fra-approves-move-of-high-speed-train-from-hornell-to-colorado| url-status=live}}</ref>  In January 2021, the plant won a $1.8bn contract to build new passenger railcars for [[Metra]], which is expected to create 250 additional jobs.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Alstom awarded $1.8 billion Metra contract, hundreds of new jobs coming to Hornell
|date=January 13, 2021
|url=https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/corning-bureau/alstom-awarded-1-8-billion-metra-contract-hundreds-of-new-jobs-coming-to-hornell
|newspaper=My Twin Tiers
|access-date=February 1, 2021
|archive-date=February 3, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203061848/https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/corning-bureau/alstom-awarded-1-8-billion-metra-contract-hundreds-of-new-jobs-coming-to-hornell/
|url-status=live
}}</ref>