UGL & GE Transportation celebrate Australian launch of PowerHaul Series locomotive

Listen to this article

UGL Limited and GE Transportation, a unit of General Electric Company, today introduced its new PowerHaul Series locomotive (PH37ACmai) at AusRail Plus 2011 in Brisbane, Australia.

AusRail is the largest rail exhibition in the southern hemisphere attracting more than 4,000 attendees and over 300 exhibitors.

The 3700HP AC locomotive is designed to be UGL and GE’s most fuel-efficient and emissions capable diesel-electric freight locomotive.

The locomotive’s technical specification will meet both heavy haul and high speed freight requirements across the Queensland and Western Australian narrow gauge rail networks.

UGL Managing Director & CEO Richard Leupen said:

“We have undertaken significant investment, along with GE, to develop a narrow gauge locomotive product that represents a considerable advancement in locomotive power technology.

“The PowerHaul Series locomotive will provide customers with substantial improvements in haulage capability, emissions, fuel-efficiency, power and reliability.”

“Even before the announcement of the carbon tax in Australia, meeting emissions requirements was a critical consideration in the locomotive design process and was driven by the increasing focus of emissions and new regulatory requirements from other parts of the world” added Mr Leupen.

The PowerHaul Series has been designed to meet the emissions requirements stipulated by EU Stage IIIA and can be adapted to meet Stage IIIB.

The PowerHaul Series reduces CO2 emissions by up to 6% compared to current operating fleet averages. The locomotive can also deliver a 6% reduction in fuel consumption compared to current operating fleet averages in its class.

GE Transportation has successfully delivered PowerHaul Series locomotives to the UK for Freightliner who labelled it the Class 70.

The UK version of the PowerHaul is somewhat different in appearance to the PH37ACmai to be built by UGL in their Australian based manufacturing facilities, though the technology employed “under the skin” is the same.

The deployment of the Class 70 has enabled Freightliner to haul longer trains with quicker running times for both coal and intermodal freight operations in the UK.

The PowerHaul Series will be the second locomotive available to the Australian rail market from UGL’s portfolio of freight rolling stock products to be GE ecomagination qualified.

William (Mickey) Kovacs, GE Transportation’s Managing Director ANZ & Asia Pacific, explains:

“Ecomagination is a GE-wide commitment to developing technology designed to help customers satisfy environmental challenges, to maximise performance and reduce cost.

“GE has developed a wide variety of rail-specific, environmentally capable technologies which are ecomagination qualified and available through UGL in Australia. These include among others the Evolution Series locomotive, and now, the PowerHaul Series locomotive.”

Since 2008, UGL and GE have delivered close to seventy advanced heavy haul Evolution Series locomotives to Rio Tinto Iron Ore who recently ordered an additional thirteen to support its mining operations in Australia’s Pilbara region.

Mr Leupen said: “The introduction of the PowerHaul Series locomotive is another example of UGL’s commitment to provide customers with cleaner, more efficient rail technologies in the Australian resources and freight industries and is testament to our longstanding partnership with GE which provides customers with access to the latest technological advancements.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Rail News

ORR review leads to 50% reduction in maximum fees for ticket refunds

New rules will mean that from 2 April the maximum fee that train operators and ticket retailers can charge...

More like this...