GE

GE Transportation’s 4,500th Evolution® Series Locomotive has entered revenue service “in support of GE’s rail customers around the globe,” the company announced at Railway Interchange 2011 held in Minneapolis, Minn.

“The Evolution Series represents a $400 million investment to create our most technologically advanced, fuel efficient and low emissions heavy haul freight locomotive to date,” GE saud. “GE’s bestselling locomotive reduces fuel use by 5%, or approximately 320,000 gallons over the lifetime of the locomotive, while lowering emissions by approximately 40%. Today, more than 4,500 Evolution Series Locomotives operate in key rail markets worldwide, including in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and Australia.”

“Our commitment to significantly invest in research and development and manufacturing infrastructure as well as the performance of our products and services positions us strongly in the global rail industry,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, President and CEO of GE Transportation. “We are especially proud of our ecomagination products that measurably help our customers’ bottom lines while improving their environmental performance. Fuel efficiency delivers a real competitive advantage to our railway customers around the world as they lower their operating costs and minimize their carbon footprint worldwide.”

GE Transportation said it “continues to invest in technology leadership and product innovation. By the end of 2011, we will have invested approximately $600 million over the past two years. GE’s transportation business keeps expanding its operational footprint and has established manufacturing capabilities to serve growth markets such as North America, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Kazakhstan, China and Australia. We plan to invest approximately $200 million in a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Fort Worth, Tex., as well as significant technology upgrades at our more than 100-year old manufacturing facility in Erie, Pa., to meet accelerating domestic and global demand.

The Texas facility will manufacture, assemble, and remanufacture GE’s rail and transportation-related products. Production is scheduled to start by the third quarter of 2012. GE Transportation’s new manufacturing site in the U.S. will complement its existing manufacturing operations in North America. It will create more than 500 new high-tech manufacturing jobs in Texas by 2012 with the potential of up to 275 additional jobs in subsequent years. Since the beginning of 2011, GE Transportation has announced and created more than 1,900 new U.S. jobs, including nearly 1,000 at its Erie site.

“We are strengthening our operational footprint in the U.S. and around the globe to better serve our rail customers,” said Robert McKeel, General Manager of Global Locomotive Operations for GE Transportation. “In order to capitalize on global infrastructure growth opportunities we need to be close to our customers and continue to localize our manufacturing capabilities.” Currently, approximately 17,000 GE locomotives are in use in more than 50 countries around the world, including more than 4,500 Evolution Series Locomotives.

After a two-year period of “economic volatility in global markets,” GE Transportation has returned to double-digit growth in 2011. The company reported $2.1 billion in revenues for the first half of this year, up 45% compared to the same period last year. Segment profits for the same period were $335 million, up 135 percent. GE Transportation received $2.3 billion of orders in the first half of 2011. GE will announce its third-quarter earnings on Oct. 21.

(Photo by William C. Vantuono)