Area Development
GE Transportation has announced it will invest $231 million in two new U.S.-based projects resulting in the creation of 490 jobs. The company plans to build a manufacturing facility in Fort Worth, TX, which will make electric drive systems for heavy-duty mining trucks, and to expand its existing locomotive and mining equipment factory in Erie, PA.

Specifically, GE Transportation will spend $95 million on the new 236,000-sq.-ft. Fort Worth plant and add 130 manufacturing jobs there by mid-2012. In Erie, the company will invest $136 million and hire 360 new workers.

GE Transportation has seen strong global demand for its heavy mining equipment in 2011. It reported $2.1 billion in revenues for the first half of this year (up 45 percent), and profits at $335 million (up 135 percent).