GE Transportation has once again confirmed its commitment to innovation at InnoTrans 2010 in Berlin, Germany. InnoTrans is the world’s largest rail exhibition attracting approximately 90,000 attendees and 1,600 exhibitors from 90 countries. We would like to have you visit GE’s display at Hall 5.2, Booth 101.
Sustainability
GE Transportation provides its customers with sustainable solutions such as PowerHaul, Trip Optimizer and LOCOTROL Distributed Power, which allow economic growth while reducing negative impact on the environment.
Delivering on a promise
GE exhibits its PowerHaul locomotive for the first time after announcing of the project at InnoTrans 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 PowerHaul engine represents GE Transportation’s first entry to the UK and European market place.
Cruise Control for the Locomotive
GE’s 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 saving 83 million liters of fuel a year, saving customers millions of dollars in fuel costs
Getting more out of long trains
LOCOTROL Distributed Power reduces locomotive fuel consumption 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.
Innovation
GE is continually looking for new ways to solve its customers’ most difficult challenges. GE’s RailEdgeÒ Movement Planner is breakthrough software that improves railroad capacity and reliability while reducing transportation costs. 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 in 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 recorded revenue of $1.5 billion. Today, GE has 17,000 locos 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.
To read the complete press release click here.
