CHICAGO — GE Transportation announced today that Canadian National has ordered 60 more locomotives, adding to an order of 200 placed in December 2017.
The units will be built at GE Transportation’s Fort Worth, Texas, plant. They will meet Tier 4 emission standards, and feature Locotrol distributed power and Trip Optimizer systems, along with GE’s GoLINC computer platform.
“With strong demand across our business, we continue to invest for the long haul with these locomotives that further expand the reliability and size of our fleet,” JJ Ruest, president and chief executive officer of CN, said in a press release. “With expanded infrastructure and new equipment, we are giving our industry-leading transportation team the tools they need to provide higher levels of service with greater operating efficiency.”
The first locomotives in CN’s initial order of 200 ES44AC were scheduled to be delivered this year, with the remainder arriving in 2019 and 2020. No delivery date for the new order was mentioned in today’s release.
CN obviously feels that buying new is a better long-term deal than buying used. There is a lot of used power available out there but it all depends on the price. The new GE’s are also more fuel efficient. EMD seems to be fading as a builder of mainline locomotives. Sad, but that is the reality…
CSX has hundreds of locomotives stored with more on the way. CN is buying new units. I guess CN has recovered form Hunter’s disease.
Great news about the GE locomotive purchase. Perhaps my $20 GE stock will get a rebound away from single digits. Thank you CN,
LUMBER. 2018 winter weather compounded by CN equipment and crew shortages resulted in 8-week shipment delays from BC lumber producers. Can you report on the anticipated remedy to a repeat situation. Lumber producers and the CN both knew the condition existed months before hand and failed to disclose the likelihood of shipment delays. Both Canadian and US lumber buyers would be most grateful for your analysis.
LUMBER…CN’s shortage contribute to 8-week shipment delays from BC lumber p
From what I understand, many units from the 200-units order are Tier-IV Credit ES44AC units.
Shouldn’t designation be ET44AC if they are tier 4 compliant?
Britt…a big part of the problem with EMD-Progressive-Caterpillar is that they still are working on the tier 4 thing…they got a very late start on that program…GE is far more advanced in that department.
I guess CN is through with EMD, maybe the closing of the plant in Canada is paynack maybe? Or maybe GE is cheaper or just maybe a better product?