Union Switch & Signal

Union Switch & Signal Inc. (US&S) was an American company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which focused on railway signaling equipment, systems and services. The company was acquired by Ansaldo STS (from 2015, Hitachi Rail STS) in 1988, operating as a wholly owned company until January 2009, when US&S was renamed "Ansaldo STS USA" to operate as a subsidiary of Ansaldo in the Americas and Asia.

George Westinghouse founded Union Switch & Signal Inc. in 1881, consolidating the assets of the Union Electric Signal Company (founded by track circuit inventor William Robinson) and the Interlocking Switch & Signal Company (which had pioneered interlockings). In 1925 US&S acquired the Hall Signal Company, primarily to obtain the latter company's patents for searchlight signals.

US&S operated as an independent company until 1917, when it became a subsidiary of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO). In 1968, American Standard purchased WABCO and reorganized US&S as a separate division.

In 1988, Ansaldo STS, a global supplier of signaling, control and automation systems, purchased US&S from American Standard. In November 1993, US&S became a publicly traded company with shares listed on Nasdaq. In December 1996, US&S merged with the other signaling investments of Ansaldo. As a result of that merger, US&S became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ansaldo STS. The company was renamed Ansaldo STS – USA in January 2009. Ansaldo was acquired by Hitachi and Ansaldo STS became Hitachi Rail STS in 2019.

Throughout its history, US&S had manufacturing facilities in the borough of Swissvale, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. The Swissvale plant was closed in 1985 and demolished in 1986. US&S moved manufacturing operations to a facility in Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina. It maintained a research facility in Pittsburgh.

US&S built the first power interlocking system in the United States, a pneumatic design, in 1882 at East St. Louis, Illinois. Within several years the company developed an electro-pneumatic system, which was widely adopted by railroads across the country.

In 1901 US&S developed the first electro-pneumatic automatic train stop system for the Boston Elevated Railway. This system was later adopted by the New York City Subway and other transit systems. In 1908 the company introduced an electrically controlled highway crossing gate.

In 1923 US&S developed the first inductive train control system. (See also pulse code cab signaling.) The company developed coded track circuits, supporting bi-directional cab signaling, in 1934.