MIRA LOMA, Calif. - More than 200 employees who converted large railroad freight cars to smaller ones will be looking for work when their factory in Mira Loma suspends operations at the end of the week, the Press Enterprise reports.
The 209 workers are employed by Chicago-based TTX Co., which provides and manages freight rail cars for the major railroads in North America. The 200,000-square-foot Mira Loma shop, called the Calpro Division, has converted 48-foot double-stack cars to standard-sized 40-foot cars, said Sara Lorenzo, TTX's communications director.
TTX is owned by the major railroads, which are also the company's largest customers. The loads they carry range from finished products such as automobiles and machinery to materials such as lumber and steel.
With demand for these materials in decline, all the freight industries, including the railroads, are going through a slowdown in activity.
"Given the current economic climate, the Calpro operation is not viable right now," Lorenzo said.
The company said in a statement the employees at the plant on San Sevaine Way will receive severance compensation and health and welfare benefits. Also, Lorenzo said TTX intentionally is using the word "suspended," as opposed to "closed" to describe the Mira Loma factory.
"If demand for 40-foot rail cars comes back, we will go back to making them," she said.
Shipments carried by railroads across the United States declined during the first six weeks of 2009 compared to the same period last year. The Association of American Railroads said a little more than 1.6 million carloads were shipped during that period, down 16 percent from the previous year.
Association spokesman Tom White said the declines started in November, when the bottom started dropping out of the overall economy.
"Earlier in the year the weak dollar made it affordable to export more goods, and high energy costs were making coal and ethanol more in demand," White said. "So until November volumes were holding up."
Seventeen of the 19 freight categories have declined, and analysts say drop-offs in automotive shipments and metal ores are the biggest reasons. The only types of goods to show increases were coal, which is up 1 percent, and the miscellaneous category.
The declines flattened in the second week in February, although White said weekly swings in volume are not uncommon in rail shipping.
Despite the freight declines, the major railroads, including BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Corp., reported bigger profits in their most recent quarters. Both have reduced their work forces by 2,000 or more in the past few months and have said more reductions are possible.
(This item appeared Feb. 24, 2009, in the Press Enterprise.)
