GE Transportation's Rail division provides a broad portfolio of rail technology solutions and products to help customers around the world optimise the efficiency of their locomotives, improve productivity of their rail operations and decrease operational costs.
Based in Erie, Pennsylvania, GE Transportation's Rail division is very active throughout the African continent, where GE has been present for more than 100 years, having established its first foreign office in what is now South Africa as far back as 1898.
"GE Transportation's Rail division has service, maintenance, refurbishment and parts supply contracts with several major rail utilities, in countries such as Egypt, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa," says Roger Lambson, Sales Director of GE Transportation Rail division, Middle East and Africa.
"The Rail division recently led an exciting new initiative in order to get closer to our customers and their requirements, thereby providing increased momentum to the efforts of the Rail division to drive growth throughout the Middle East & Africa region, and to place ourselves as market leaders across the full product and solutions portfolio of locomotives, modernisations, products, services and signalling," Lambson points out."
The initiative, named after the African Zulu word for 'team' - 'Iquembu' - recently led a three-week market analysis and exploration tour of 10 countries throughout the Southern African region. These included South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Botswana, Angola and Namibia," he says.
"The idea originated from our own Rail division employee suggestions received last year during Growth Week within GE. During our tour, the team learned that many of these sub-Saharan African countries face severe rail capacity issues; which prevent them from growing economically; and that these issues offer the Rail division not only exciting business prospects, but also tremendous corporate citizenship opportunities too," Lambson elaborates.
According to Lambson, the entire installed base of GE's locomotives is in the region of 1200 across the African continent. The division is also involved in the supply of spare parts and support to African countries that run GE's locomotives, and is also exploring upgrade programmes for some of these ageing locomotives.
"As a result of the 'I Team' initiative, we will be using the tremendously valuable market information we gathered in order to hone and improve our offering to the Southern African and pan-African rail market," he emphasises.
According to Lambson, the recent research initiative findings indicate that many African railroads suffer from marked low locomotive availability, with statistics pointing to only six out of every ten locomotives in daily operation.
"However, at the same time, it appears that Africa is aligning itself fairly fast to the trends of other emerging markets; and is also seriously striving to improve its rail infrastructure which has suffered after years of war and or neglect," Lambson remarks.
He continues that, although the current rail industry is competitive, with numerous rail product and solution providers vying for opportunities, relationships are key, and loyalty matters.
"GE Transportation Rail division has a long history of good, reliable work and steadfast relationships with key governmental, concessionaires and private rail players, and we aim to build on this solid foundation, moving forward - as evidenced by our I Team initiative; whereby we successfully gained an even better understanding of how best to provide our African customers with what they require.
"We certainly found that countries across the region offer interesting opportunities, with different phasing and urgency requirements," he adds.
" With our broad spectrum offerings of products and solutions aimed at the maintenance, service and refurbishment of ageing fleets, the Rail division is well positioned to show the African rail market the best way to utilise its current assets; thereby providing longer life, better cost-efficiency and better return-on-investment where new solutions are possibly just not affordable," he explains.
"With leading-edge technology products and services, and customers that range from Spoornet to other pan-African rail utilities such as CamRail (Cameroon Rail Authority) and Tazara (Tanzanian/Zambian Railways Authority), GE Transportation's Rail business in Africa is positioned to make a pivotal contribution to the African rail industry," Lambson maintains.
According to Lambson, the Rail division has a long history of product and service delivery in South Africa particularly, beginning some forty-six years ago.
The local GE office handles all sales and marketing of GE products in collaboration with implementation partner DCD-DORBYL, which is responsible for the integration and physical assembly required, using only GE packages and components.
"An excellent example of locomotive upgrades is the Brightstar package, which effectively focuses on replacing the old control equipment in diesel-electric locomotives with its Brightstar microprocessor system, giving control benefits such as increased traction control and operational efficiency. This is an affordable option to purchasing a new locomotive; particularly for many African railroad authorities, that do not have the capital finance to purchase new stock," explains Lambson.
According to Lambson, several African rail authorities have chosen the BrightStar route, with Cameroon (Camrail) and local company's Sasol Secunda plant fleet currently operating this proven technology.
The GE Rail team also supports Kenya Railways to improve productivity and efficiency by helping them better manage their aging locomotive fleets.
"In Kenya, the U26C locomotives were old and badly maintained due to lack of resources and orientation. The customer did not have the financial support to purchase a new fleet and needed a solution to overhaul and improve the performance of the existing 35 locomotives.
"Because these locomotives serve the community - transporting everything from people to goods - GE Rail's Maintenance Service Agreement is not only helping the customer improve the rail service, but also the quality of life in the region," Lambson maintains.
As a result, GE Rail helped Kenya Railways reduce maintenance costs as well as increasing performance. As the locomotives were overhauled, availability improved from 48 % to over 90; and the amount of cargo they were able to transport skyrocketed from 2.8 million tons to 5.5 million tons.
"In addition to the Brightstar upgrade packages, spares and service level agreements, the Rail division provides a unit exchange service, whereby major locomotive parts are re-engineered and remanufactured; as well as an 'Indigenisation' programme, whereby locomotive engine parts are locally re-engineered, in accordance with GE's quality standards and controls.
"The Rail division also has a global signalling division, which, among other services, is proposing an innovative new system of train control to Africa. The CBTC, or Communications-Based Train Control system, uses innovative Train Positioning to run more trains, more safely, using existing infrastructure," Lambson says.
"In addition to CBTC, GE Transportation Rail division provides customers with on-board and wayside signaling and communications systems, train inspection systems, crossing warning systems, switch machines, services, and information technology solutions for the global railroad and transit industry. Its products help to ensure the safe reliable operation of rail systems worldwide," Lambson concludes.
Note to the Editors:
GE Transportation's Rail division has been the market leader for diesel-electric locomotives for the past decade. Currently over 10,000 locomotives operate worldwide in passenger and freight services. Customers rely on GE's proven technology and services to dispatch, maintain, modernize, and repair their locomotive fleets. GE Transportation - Rail division currently maintains 7000 locomotives at over 30 different locations around the world. Each GE service program is designed to meet the specific needs of the host railroad.
GE Transportation created the Evolution series locomotive - the most technologically advanced, fuel-efficient and environmentally- friendly diesel locomotive to ever put power to the rails.
AC4400 This GE locomotive is a heavy-haul locomotive that delivers world-classtractive effort and unmatched reliability.
AC6000 The AC6000 offers major advantages in tractive effort, speed and reliability advantages that deliver unprecedented productivity in intermodal transportapplications.
DASH The Dash family locomotives (Dash 9, 8, and 7) offer to customers advanced, high power DC propulsions which provide improved asset utilization, higher replacement ratio, and lower life cycle costs. The other types of GE locomotivesare Blue Tiger, Genesis/passenger series and Universal series.
Throughout the continent, the Rail division has service, maintenance and refurbishment contracts with several major rail utilities, in countries such as Egpyt, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa. The entire installed base of GE locomotives is in the region of 1200 across the entire African continent. The division is also involved in the supply of signaling technology solutions, as well as spare parts and support to African countries that run GE locomotives,and is also exploring upgrade programmes for some of these ageing locomotives.
Chris Banocy