22-11-04
GE achieves strong partnership with Rail Polska
Says Willem Goosen, GE’s Sales Director for Europe on the Rail Services business, “We work hard to add value to our customer’s requirements and were fortunate to be in a position to work closely with Rail Polska at just the right time. We have been able to develop a relationship based on understanding of business needs and total co-operation. Trust is of course crucial to creating a true partnership and this has now become well established. We have created a strong basis for working together on the future growth of rail services for Poland and other Eastern Europe countries, as part of the bigger plans from Rail Polska’s parent Rail World Incorporated.”
The team at GE did some extensive planning on cost benefits on managing certain areas of the Rail Polska freight wagon fleet and came up with excellent productivity improvements, which led to the closure of sale and lease back deals across 79 open box wagons and 50 coal hoppers.
Rail Polska Sp. z o.o. is headquartered in Warsaw and was established in 1999 as a subsidiary of Rail World Incorporated, a Chicago-based rail management and investment company, to represent the company's interests in the Polish rail freight transport market. The President and CEO of Rail World Inc., Mr Edward A. Burkhardt, has a mission to create a rail freight business known throughout the world. He also led the successful privatization of rail freight in Estonia. Rail Polska is now recognised as a national freight operator that can provide services on the whole PLK network.
Mr Burkhardt said, “From my time as CEO of the largest regional rail freight corporation in the US, I know very well just how strong an organisation GE is. It’s important to us that our partners know how to do business well and can relate to the challenges and opportunities we face in our rail freighting business each day. The team at GE have shown consistent dedication to understanding exactly what will be of benefit to our business. The partnership we’ve developed with GE over recent year is extremely important to our planned growth.”
GE provides its Rail Services business to give rail freight customers rental, maintenance and funding solutions that keep freight on the move all over Europe. GE’s heritage goes back 125 years and the corporation continues to grow from strength to strength. Today GE is a US$134 billion global business employing over 315,000 people worldwide. Flexibility and innovation has driven this success. With a large fleet of industry leading wagon variants, GE has its Rail Services at the ready to serve rail freight equipment needs across Europe.
For further information please contact:
Lynette Innes, Communications Manager – Europe
GE Equipment Services
Rail Services
Tel +31 (0) 20 504 1798
Fax +31 (0) 20 504 1730
Mobile +31 (0) 646 270 281
lynette.innes@ge.com