February 1st, 2018
HORNELL, NY – Alstom has agreed to sign a lease extension with the city. Although they have been here for 20 years, their current agreement will run out in two years. They have agreed to extend their lease for another 13 years, and after that they will have the options on 3 more 5 year agreements. “You’re actually looking at Alstom being around for another 30 years,” Said IDA Director Jim Griffin, “In all the years I have been around, it’s very unusual to get a company to commit to a lease that long.
Another area Griffin wanted to clear up was the notion that Alstom does not pay any taxes, “Alstom pays a substantial amount of property taxes through the IDA. Although the numbers are confidential between us, Alstom is by far the largest tax payer in our city.”
Mayor John Buckley, who also attended the signing, had high praise for how the company has advanced over the years and their commitment to infrastructure. He also had high praise for our area workforce.
Mike McDonald, Site Director for Alstom in Hornell, said they plan on building 28 new single unit high speed railcars for Amtrak that are 720 ft long and will be able to travel up to 168 mph depending on track conditions.
According to McDonald, they are currently underway recruiting a temp workforce of up to 70 people with some starting as early as this Monday. Those workers will be spread across 4 division projects with emphasis on the PACo cars to get them out the door for space for the Amtrak cars. The Amtrak contract will ramp up in April.
