GE Transportation moving HQ

GE Transportation has reportedly designated Chicago as its new headquarters, moving 50 people there initially with plans to add 100 more.

Since 1907, GE Transportation has been based in Lawrence Park Township, Pa., just outside Erie. The company has added more than 1,300 employees in the past year to give it 5,500 workers there today, according to the Erie News-Times.

GE Transportation is one of six major divisions under Fairfield-based General Electric Co. In the first quarter, GE Transportation reported an operating profit of $232 million on revenue of $1.3 billion.

CEO Lorenzo Simonelli said Chicago”™s location makes it more efficient for GE Transportation to reach its customers. The Chicago Tribune reported the company received no incentives from Chicago or Illinois.

“I understand that there is a lot of emotion and a lot of history with regard to GE being in Erie,” Simonelli told the Erie Times-News.

Last week, GE Transportation announced plans to build a locomotive manufacturing plant in Kazakhstan, which eventually will produce some 400 diesel locomotives annually.