Wabtec Awarded Contract To Build Commuter Locomotives For GO Transit; Order Valued At US$217 Million, Including Options

Wabtec Corporation's MotivePower subsidiary has been awarded a contract to build 27 new commuter locomotives for GO Transit, a transit system in Ontario, Canada, for US$112 million. The contract includes 26 option locomotives for an additional US$105 million, or a total of US$217 million. The locomotives will be built at MotivePower's Boise, Idaho facility, with work scheduled to begin in the first half of 2006 and deliveries scheduled for 2007-08. The locomotives will contain a number of components produced by other Wabtec subsidiaries, including braking equipment, air dryers, air compressors, brake shoes and radiators.

“We're very pleased to be selected by GO Transit to provide these new, high-efficiency locomotives, which will replace its existing fleet,” said William E. Kassling, Wabtec's chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Our MotivePower subsidiary has a successful track record of building similar locomotives for passenger transit operations in Illinois, California and New Mexico, and we look forward to providing more of the same service to GO Transit.”

The streamlined locomotives will have significant technological improvements compared to GO Transit's current fleet, including higher-horsepower engines to increase acceleration, greater fuel efficiency, reduced emissions and microprocessor controls. They will also meet new crashworthiness and safety standards set by the American Public Transportation Association.

“We are moving ahead to create a transit culture in this province,” said Harinder Takhar, Ontario Transportation Minister. “These new locomotives will help make GO service more efficient and reliable for more than 140,000 riders who take GO trains daily.”

GO Transit, officially named the Greater Toronto Transit Authority, is Canada's first and Ontario's only interregional public transit system. It links the city of Toronto with the surrounding area and carries 45 million passengers per year by train and bus.

Wabtec Corporation (www.wabtec.com) is one of North America's largest providers of value-added, technology-based products and services for the rail industry. Through its subsidiaries, the company manufactures a range of products for locomotives, freight cars and passenger transit vehicles. The company also builds new switcher and commuter locomotives, and provides aftermarket services, including locomotive and freight car fleet maintenance. The company has facilities located throughout the world.


Hmmm...and no one voted for MPI in he poll further down this post.

Hmn, I didn't expect that.

Posted by Particle Man Hmn, I didn't expect that.

Same here...never heard of these guys either

Posted by Agent Skelly Same here...never heard of these guys either

MPI built the latest locos for Chicago Metra, LA, and New Mexico. They use a GE built 645 (surprisingly, GE now owns the rights to the 645) 16 cylinder 3600hp engine

click to view

Posted by The Doctor MPI built the latest locos for Chicago Metra, LA, and New Mexico. They use a GE built 645 (surprisingly, GE now owns the rights to the 645) 16 cylinder 3600hp engine click to view

Oh, they built the CalTran locomotives! There OK then. And there even better because they are using a GE engine. (I have GE stock)

Oh god no. I do not want to see one of those things in GO paint.

Damnit we're going to see some fugly green locomotives in the future

They will certainly be ugly thats for sure, I like the old ones better

How they heck are they going to match that up to our Hexagonal passenger cars? Or are we getting a whole new shabang?
Edit:
Oh wait, looks like that's they style of car they already pull. Huh. Well, it still looks ugly to me.

Posted by Decoy How they heck are they going to match that up to our Hexagonal passenger cars? Or are we getting a whole new shabang? Edit: Oh wait, looks like that's they style of car they already pull. Huh. Well, it still looks ugly to me.

Yeah, CalTran uses the Bombardier BiLevel cars with the Wabtec locos. I've seen those in person and they don't look all that bad that way.