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From: Cindy Smiley [mailto:cindy.smiley@kellyhart.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 12:41 PM
To: Smiley, Scott A; Smiley Brian; Smiley, Jenny
Subject: news story on locomotives

GE to build locomotives in north Fort Worth

Posted Thursday, May. 12, 2011

By Sandra Baker

sabaker@star-telegram.com

GE Transportation, a leading maker of rail and transportation products, is buying a 500,000-square-foot facility in far north Fort Worth that it will expand and use to build locomotives starting in 2012.

The project initially will create more than 500 high-tech manufacturing jobs and the possibility of 275 more in coming years, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce said today.

The company is expected to invest $80 million expanding the building at 12850 Three Wide Dr. into a 900,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art locomotive manufacturing facility. It is being supported by $4.3 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund.

Lorenzo Simonelli, president and CEO of GE Transportation, said the Fort Worth facility will allow the company to better serve its customers.

"We see robust growth in the U.S. and around the globe," Simonelli said. "A new site will help us to effectively respond to the cyclical demand in the transportation industry and to strengthen our overall position."

GE Transportation will use the Fort Worth facility to assemble and remanufacture the company's rail and transportation-related products, the chamber said. That includes GE's signature Evolution Series locomotive, an energy-efficient product that it says reduces fuel consumption 5 percent while reducing emissions by 40 percent over the lifetime of the locomotive.

GE Transportation will start hiring salaried employees and production workers such as welders, assemblers, painters and related skilled trades by the end of the year. Production should begin by the second half of 2012.

David Berzina, executive vice president for economic development at the Fort Worth chamber, said Fort Worth was among three locations in the running for the facility. The facility is in the Fort Worth city limits, but is in Denton County.

"The city of Fort Worth is proud that GE has chosen to locate here and manufacture the very locomotives that will help move goods . . . throughout our state, the region and the country," Berzina said. "The significance of GE's decision to build a new plant here, and the impact it will have on commerce in North Texas and beyond, is extraordinary."

GE Transportation, a unit of General Electric Co., is based in Erie, Penn. It employs about 10,000 workers worldwide.

The company provides freight and passenger locomotives, signaling and communications systems, information technology solutions, marine engines, motorized drive systems for mining trucks and drills, high-quality replacement parts and other services.

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief said GE Transportation's new facility will "enhance our dynamic manufacturing and distribution community."

Denton County Commissioner Andy Eads said the facility "will yield tremendous economic benefits for the region through the creation of hundreds of skilled jobs."

In April, GE Transportation reported $903 million in first-quarter revenues, up 18 percent from a year ago. The company said it received $938 million in orders in the quarter, about even with a year earlier, but Simonelli said more locomotives are returning to rail lines in North America.

"We see a steady flow of orders, and our production is up," he said last month.

Since 2010, GE Transportation said it has hired about 1,000 workers at its manufacturing plant in Erie.

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Fw: FW: news story on locomotives

GE to build locomotives in north Fort Worth