GE Transportation locomotive repair facility expected to add 120 new jobs
(The following story by Kevin Collison appeared on The Kansas City Star website on November 21.)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. GE Transportation has opened a locomotive repair and maintenance facility at a Northland industrial park, a city development agency was told Friday. The plant is expected to provide 120 new jobs by the end of the year.
The 85,000-square-foot facility is at 10707 Pomona Ave. in the AirWorld Center business park. It will overhaul, remanufacture and repair locomotive equipment operated by major railroads, including Kansas City Southern, BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX and Canadian National.
We are currently ramping up operations, and GE Transportation employees have already started to remanufacture sets of locomotive wheels, axles and traction motors for both GE and other locomotive suppliers, Stephan Koller, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement.
The locomotive equipment to be repaired each set weighs about 13,000 pounds is hauled to the plant by truck on flatbeds.
The board of the Kansas City Economic Development Corp. was briefed on the project at its regular bimonthly meeting. Incentives included state tax credits, job training bonds and employee recruitment assistance.
The average starting wage was estimated to be $33,768 by city development officials, Koller said. GE Transportation already has about 1,400 employees in Missouri.
Koller said Kansas City was chosen because of its proximity to rail customers, its skilled work force and the efforts of local development and education agencies.
We are looking forward to joining Kansas Citys manufacturing community and providing new employment opportunities, he said.
Troll wrote:It will overhaul, remanufacture and repair locomotive equipment operated by major railroads, including Kansas City Southern, BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX and Canadian National.
Yep, at $16 bucks an hour for thier workers, wonder how much cheeper it will be for GE to do the work? So KCS,BNSF,UP,CSX,and others can let thier own highly paid and compensated workers go!!! Not to mention expensive and dangerous Shops/RoHo's, and all the dangerous machinery inside. Sounds like some more Reagan/Bush VooDoo economics.