On 21 February 2011, a ceremony celebrating the introduction of the first 2 of 100 locomotives supplied by Transnet and GE Transportation’s entity in South Africa took place trackside.
In 2009 GE announced a landmark contract with Transnet Ltd to supply Transet Freight Rail with 100 GE Model C30ACi locomotives.
According to the contract, 10 of the locomotives will be manufactured in Erie and Grove City, USA and 90 will be assembled locally at Transnet Rail Engineering’s site in South Africa with kits provided by GE Transportation. In accordance with the agreement, the locomotives introduced today represent the first units shipped from Erie, Pennsylvania.
The remaining eight locomotives built in Erie are scheduled to ship in within the next few months.
The first 4 of 90 locomotive kits from Erie and engines from Grove City for assembly in country also were shipped along with the first 2 locomotives built in Erie. The first locomotives to be assembled locally are now in process and scheduled to enter revenue service in the third quarter of 2011. The remaining assembly kits for local production will ship in batches between now and 2012. All 100 locomotives are planned to be in revenue service by the first quarter of 2013.
GE’s Model C30ACi Locomotive is a product of ecomaginationSM. Ecomagination is a GEwide initiative to help meet customer demand for more energy-efficient products. The locomotives will enable customers to haul the same amount of freight with fewer locomotives thereby reducing fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. GE’s C30ACi also will be the first locomotive in the South African region to meet stringent
UIC2 emissions standards. With GE’s C30ACi locomotives a South African customer can deploy three C30ACi models to haul a load that would require four older locomotives, reducing annual diesel fuel consumption by approximately 600,000 liters under typical operating conditions. It can reduce emissions by 1,500 metric tons of CO2 annually, equivalent to eliminating the emissions from 310 cars on South African roads.
GE’s Model C30ACi is first AC diesel-electric locomotive to be introduced to sub-Saharan Africa. Its engine delivers 3,300 Gross Horse Power (GHP) using an electronic fuel injection system that automatically supplies the exact amount of fuel needed for optimal engine efficiency. The locomotives also feature GE’s unique AC propulsion technology and dynamic braking. The addition of these new locomotives, which will be used to haul freight and coal, will decrease life-cycle costs, improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
A trusted partner and supplier to the rail and mining industries in South Africa, GE Transportation has an installed base of some 1,200 GE locomotives in Africa including approximately 900 in South Africa.
In 2008 GE Transportation signed an agreement with one of South Africa’s foremost Broad- Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) companies, Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC), to establish the subsidiary GE South Africa Technologies (Pty) Limited (GESAT), allowing the company to more actively participate in South Africa’s social and economic transformation in the rail industry.
GE Transportation also took South Africa’s Western Cape Orex line to the next level with the longest production train in the world, made possible through GE’s LOCOTROL® technology.
This distributed power system – a first in South Africa – allows longer, safer trains on the critical Western Cape Saldanha Bay iron ore export line. Orex is the only heavy-haul iron-ore railway line in South Africa and the second-longest iron-ore railway line in the world at some 861 kilometers. It feeds the port of Saldanha Bay, for export to a global market hungry for South African iron ore. Until now, the carrying capacity of the line itself has been a major barrier to increasing economy-boosting iron ore exports. GE Transportation has a long and successful history of operations and activities throughout Africa.
