CHICAGO, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- GATX Rail Corporation today notified its
employees and the United Steelworkers of America that it has finalized its
decision to close its East Chicago, Indiana, service center where it maintains
and repairs railroad tank and freight cars.
Terrence G. Heidkamp, GATX Rail's senior vice president of maintenance,
stated, "We have determined that it is not economical for us to continue to
operate this facility. As we have discussed with the United Steelworkers of
America, a number of cost issues specific to this facility and this location
such as taxes, utilities, and railcar switching costs led to the closure plan,
previously disclosed in January. GATX Rail operates additional repair
facilities that are not affected by this decision."
Tobi D'Andrea, GATX Rail's senior vice president of customer support and
services, stated, "We have agreements with a number of contract repair
facilities for the timely, cost efficient repair of our railcars that were
formerly serviced at East Chicago. We believe that our customers will not
experience any adverse impact in the short term from this decision and will in
fact benefit from the decision over time."
The company confirmed that the final day of operations will be
March 26, 2001, as previously announced. At the present time the facility
employs a total of 115 workers.
GATX Rail Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GATX Corporation
(NYSE: GMT), a unique finance and leasing company combining asset knowledge
and services, structuring expertise, creative partnering and risk capital.
GATX provides sophisticated leasing and financial services responsive to the
specialized needs of a range of businesses. In addition to offering railcar
and locomotive operating leasing, GATX specializes in aircraft operating
leasing, information technology services leasing, venture finance, and
financing solutions for customers in diversified markets, worldwide.
Investor, corporate information and press releases may be found at
http://www.gatx.com . A variety of current financial information, historical
financial information, press releases and photographs are available at this
site. GATX press releases may be obtained by automated PR News Company News
On-Call's automated fax service at 800-758-5804. The company identification
number for GATX is 105121.
SOURCE GATX Corporation
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Related links:
http://www.gatx.com
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/105121.html or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 105121
CONTACT:
George Lowman of GATX Corporation,
312-621-6599
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