Bombardier, the Montreal-based rail car and commercial jet company with a major facility in West Mifflin, is actually looking forward to this year, thanks to new projects on the way, the prospects of benefiting from the economic stimulus package and a strong, loyal base of customers, company officials say.

The local plant has about 820 employees representing three of six divisions of Bombardier Transportation -- systems, rail control solutions, and propulsion and controls.

The West Mifflin facility is the "worldwide headquarters of automated people systems," said Vice President Mike Fetsko. "We do projects all over the world. We have a number of projects being built at airports as well as projects that are inner-city connector systems."

Among those projects are an extension of the people-mover system at the Las Vegas airport, an inner--city system in Bologna, Italy, and projects at Gatwick and Heathrow airports, both in London. A contract was signed recently for a new people mover system in Sacramento, Calif.

The fact that these projects are so far flung works to Bombardier's advantage. If the economy in one locale is down, the economics of others can be strong, thus lessening the impact of a down period for the company.

"We don't depend upon any particular part of the world spending more or less money than any other part of the world. We have lots of opportunities both in the U.S. and elsewhere," Mr. Fetsko said.

"As a result, there really hasn't been a downturn on the transportation side. The money that people have to spend on new systems or in upgrading other systems hasn't really been affected."

Bombardier has had some healthy financial performance in recent years.

For instance, for the third quarter of 2008 -- the most recent results available -- Bombardier Transportation revenues rose to $2.3 billion, a $401 million increase over the third quarter of 2007. And the company reported new orders worth $2.18 billion as well.

"We're well known in the industry and we have the confidence of our customers," said Kathryn Nickerson, director of communications for the division.

"When our customers buy a system, they also come to us for systems expansion, adding new fleet after so many years, and so forth. We have a strong reputation for meeting customer needs and fulfilling their requirements."

And things could get even better for Bombardier as the impact of the federal economic stimulus spending is felt.

"We certainly are hopeful about being involved, but right now there's not a lot of information, at least specific information, as far as what products will be needed or what certain amounts of money there will be available to be allocated," Mr. Fetsko said.

Company officials have speculated the stimulus plan could generate orders from transit agencies across the United States, including those in Chicago, San Francisco and New Jersey. The Chicago Transit Authority alone has an option to buy 300 more subway cars from Bombardier after having ordered 406 in 2006.

Company officials also said that Congress's approval of $13.1 billion in passenger rail spending over the next five years could bring in work. Amtrak, which gets most of its rail cars from Bombardier, would get an increase in its federal subsidies to an average of $1.93 billion.