Wabtec wins major locomotive order; what will it mean for workers in Erie?

It was four years ago that Egyptian National Railways signed a $575 million deal with what was then GE Transportation to deliver and service 100 Erie-built locomotives. 

Earlier this week, the company, now owned by Pittsburgh-based Wabtec, signed another agreement to build and support another 100 Evolution locomotives.

The deal is a big one, both for the company at a time when orders for freight locomotives have been few and far between, and for employees in Erie, where much of the work will be done.

Tim Bader, a spokesman for Wabtec, said the company isn't disclosing the value of the contract. 

He did speak, however, to its importance for the company's Erie plant, where the engineering department will take the lead on design work.

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While the massive diesel engines will be built in Grove City, much of the work for the locomotives will likely be done in Erie, Bader said.

Scott Slawson, president of Local 506 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America at Wabtec's Erie plant, said the union has been aware of the agreement for some time.

What happened on Monday, he said, was "They got the ink dry on the paper."

He's hoping that the contract turns out to be good news for the company's union workforce, which has shrunk by about 700 in the last two years, falling to about 1,000 active members.

Recently, he said, the company has called about 80 union members back to work.

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"This may lead to more callbacks," he said. "Work has been slow. We would like it to be better."

Wabtec, which began delivering the 2017 order to Egyptian Railways in February 2019, expects to deliver these new freight locomotives in 2023.

This latest order, which would bring the number of Wabtec locomotives in the Egyptian fleet to more than 300, is for double-cab ES30ACi locomotives, equipped with 12-cylinder 3,300-hp engines.

Contact Jim Martin at 814-870-1668 or jmartin@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNMartin.