Following Monday’s USDOT announcement of $2 billion for intercity rail projects across the country, officials at Alstom Transport joined the Apollo Alliance and others to detail how federal, state and local transit investments have helped the company expand its Rochester facility in support of 200 new jobs.  Alstom specializes in manufacturing freight and passenger rail signaling equipment and rail passenger rolling stock.  In addition to its Rochester facility, Alstom also operates the largest rail passenger rolling stock manufacturing facility in the U.S., located in Hornell, NY.

Guillaume Mehlman, Alstom’s Managing Director in North America said, “Alstom has seen first-hand how federal and state investments in rail transportation projects help companies like ours create good jobs.  We are expanding our facility in Rochester, hiring several hundred people in order to meet additional demand created by such investments.”

Over the past six months, Alstom has secured several large-scale transportation projects, including an upgraded signaling and train control system for Atlanta’s MARTA, as well as an overhaul and modernization of 120 rail cars for the Delaware River Port Authority’s PATCO system.  It also received the first Federal Railroad Administration approval for a positive train control signal system, used to prevent train collisions.

USDOT Deputy Secretary John Porcari, NYSDOT Commissioner Joan McDonald and Brian Lombardozzi of the Apollo Alliance were also in attendance to show support for job creation through transit investments.  “With Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s vision and support, the New York State Department of Transportation is committed to helping to reinvigorate our economy through an environmentally responsible, multimodal transportation system,” said Commissioner McDonald.  “I salute Alstom Transport and the Apollo Alliance for working to create jobs in the Empire State and promoting sustainable transportation.”

Let’s hope more businesses take a page from Alstom’s book and speak loudly and often on the economic impacts of transit investments. Alstom and Rochester are hardly unique; businesses in at least 37 upstate cities and towns benefit from the MTA’s capital plan. Let’s hope federal, state and local elected officials remember this when Congress debates the size and substance of the federal transportation bill in the coming weeks and when Albany grapples with looming MTA and NYSDOT capital plan budget shortfalls this fall.