Dozens of new jobs are coming to a northwestern PA plant that makes about 2,000 diesel train engines every year.
GE Transportation employs about 850 people at its plant in Grove City, which is between Erie and Pittsburgh. It plans to spend $72 million over the next year to upgrade that plant and add another engine plant expected to open by the end of the year.
Company spokesman Stephan Koller says the demand for the new plant comes from a series of locomotives it introduced in 2005. These vehicles use about 5 percent less diesel than previous models and produce about 40 percent less in emissions. The engines in these locomotives now need to be serviced after having been on the market for several years. Workers in Grove City will rebuild the engines so they are in near-new condition.
“These are engines that will run decades — 20, 30, 40 years,” Koller says. “Grove City is our diesel manufacturing site, so there's a lot of knowledge and experience that resides there.”
GE Transportation plans to overhaul its existing Grove City plant while building the new facility, which is expected to open by 2013. The company expects to hire a total of 150 new employees.
Source: Stephan Koller, GE Transportation
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen