GE Transportation Addresses Toughest Rail Challenges at InnoTrans 2010

GE Transportation presents its PowerHaul Series locomotive for the first time to the global rail industry at InnoTrans 2010, the world’s largest rail exhibition. InnoTrans hosted every two years in Berlin, Germany, attracts approximately 90,000 attendees and 1,900 exhibitors from around the globe. GE showcases its technologically advanced rail and signaling solutions to address its customers’ toughest rail challenges from sustainability, technology & innovation, and globalization.

Sustainability

GE Transportation provides its customers with sustainable rail technology solutions such as PowerHaul, Trip Optimizer and LOCOTROL Distributed Power, which promote economic growth while minimizing any negative environmental impact.

Delivering on a promise

GE exhibits its PowerHaul locomotive for the first time after announcing it at InnoTrans in 2008. Freightliner Group in the United Kingdom placed the largest locomotive order in its history with GE for 30 locomotives in 2007 then partnered with GE on a new design that is configured to take into account current and future requirements for efficiency, emissions control and safety.

The heart of the PowerHaul locomotive is the newly developed 16-cylinder PowerHaul engine – GE’s most technologically advanced locomotive engine to-date. This engine, combined with other technologies from GE, is projected to reduce both fuel consumption and emissions by approximately 9% compared to current operating fleet averages. Based on GE’s global Evolution® Series locomotive platform, the 3,700 GHP engine is European Stage IIIa compliant and ecomagination certified. Ecomagination is a GE commitment to help customers satisfy environmental challenges, maximize performance and reduce cost. The PowerHaul engine represents GE Transportation’s first entry to the UK and European market place.

Freightliner recently received the Freight Achievement of the Year Award at the annual UK National Rail awards for the introduction of the PowerHaul locomotive to the UK network. Freightliner also won the Technical Development award for PowerHaul at the Rail Freight Group awards last week.

Cruise Control for the Locomotive

GE’s Trip Optimizer is a rail IT solution that generates fuel savings between 6% and 13%. Trip Optimizer evaluates a train’s length and weight, the grade and conditions of track, weather and the locomotive’s performance to calculate the most efficient way of running the train while maintaining smooth handling. The system is similar to the cruise control feature in automobiles. The technology, currently in place on 1,400 locomotives in the United States, has the potential of lowering fuel consumption by 22 million gallons or approx. 83 million liters a year, saving customers millions of dollars in fuel costs

Getting more out of long trains

LOCOTROL Distributed Power reduces locomotive fuel use by allowing more efficient train configuration and control of multiple locomotives by distributing locomotive power throughout the entire train. Based on customer data, LOCOTROL reduces fuel consumption by an estimated 6% to 10% thus avoiding an estimated 1.5 to 2.3 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Technology & Innovation

GE is continually looking for new ways to solve its customers’ most difficult challenges. GE’s RailEdge® Movement Planner is a breakthrough software that helps railroads move more freight faster on their existing rail infrastructure. By integrating railroad logistics with traffic control systems, the technology projects expected track usage, based on train schedules, and then produces an optimized plan to get trains moving faster and more efficiently. This technology could change the rail industry by increasing the average network speed of trains by 10-20 percent or two to four miles per hour (three to six kilometers per hour). In the North American rail network, a one-mile per hour velocity improvement has the potential to save approximately $200 million in capital and expense annually.

Global manufacturing and service close to customers

As a global provider to the rail industry, GE is meeting customers’ regional requirements by designing, manufacturing and building customized locomotives in the regions where they operate, while maintaining those regions’ manufacturing capabilities and strengthening their economies. Current locations include Australia, Brazil, China, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Turkey and the United States.

In the first half of 2010, GE Transportation booked global orders worth $2.4 billion and reported revenues of $1.5 billion. Today, more than 17,000 locomotive operate in 50 countries, including 3,700 Evolution Series locomotives.

GE helps rail customers around the world keep locomotives running efficiently and safely with a full range of aftermarket solutions. Critical technical support and comprehensive service packages help sustain locomotive performance; lower life-cycle cost and improve asset utilization. There are 10,000 locomotives under GE service contract with 60 service facilities in 17 countries around the world.

GE Transportation will host a GE Insights Media Roundtable on Sept. 22, from 11:00 am to 12:00 noon at Hall 6.3, Conference Room A. GE offers educational presentations addressing the world’s toughest rail challenges every 30 minutes at its Global Theater, located at its main display at Hall 5.2, Booth 101.