Thursday, March 04, 2010

ChooChoos: Who's Missing?

Stop to think about this for a moment.

There are two US-based manufacturers of diesel-electric locomotives. One is a division of GE, the other (EMD) was a division of GM.

Why are neither of them touting a 'high-speed train' locomotive?

Not because they can't build one. Both have the engineering and manufacturing capability. Certainly GE can fluff up the capital--and likely EMD could, too.

IF they thought the orders were there in sufficient quantity..........over a long enough timeframe.......

Hmmmm.

3 comments:

J.Strupp said...

eh. None issue.


GM and Ford were focusing on gas guzzling monster SUV's right up until gas prices hit $4.00/gallon.

Tim Morrissey said...

The Spanish, Japanese, and Germans own the passenger choo-choo market.

But you're certainly right about the expertise and manufacturing capacity here....

neomom said...

If I remember correctly, there were discussions a few years ago, but there's a lot more market for moving freight than people and with the market covered by the folks Tim lists, it just didn't make sense. Useless factoid - the dude who ran the train group now runs Healthcare.