LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., Jan. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greenbrier
Companies, Inc. (NYSE: GBX) today announced its support for the
National Transportation Safety Board ("NTSB") placing tank car
safety on its "Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety
Improvements for 2015".
"Including tank car safety on the list signifies the U.S.
government's recognition of the importance of this issue," said
Greg Saxton, Senior Vice President
& Chief Engineer at Greenbrier, who attended the NTSB's
announcement of its "most wanted" list today in Washington, D.C. "As crude moves by rail
across America, delivering great benefits to our economy, safety in
how crude oil and other flammable commodities are transported must
come first. We expect that the U.S. Department of Transportation
will soon issue final regulations that mandate safer tank cars.
Prompt implementation of proposed new tank car design and retrofit
standards will ensure safer communities and provide railcar
manufacturers like Greenbrier with the regulatory certainty needed
to continue investments already underway to deliver more robust
tank cars."
In February 2014, in response to
the safety concerns about the existing legacy fleet of older
DOT-111 cars, Greenbrier announced its "Tank Car of the Future", a
safer design for crude oil and ethanol service and the transport of
other hazardous materials. Since that time, Greenbrier has received
awards for over 3,500 Tank Cars of the Future and has begun
delivering these tank cars to customers.
Additionally, GBW Railcar Services – a 50/50 joint venture with
Watco Companies, LLC formed last year –is delivering retrofit
solutions for the legacy DOT-111 tank cars, permitting extended
service for DOT-111 tank cars in flammable liquids service and for
other hazardous materials transport as these cars are placed in
lower risk service over time. GBW also offers retrofit
alternatives for the most recently built CPC-1232 tank. Combined,
these retrofits meaningfully improve the safety performance of all
tank car types in continued service.
"We support the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration's effort to direct new design standards for tank
cars used in flammable liquids service, specifically, 'Option 2' as
published in the NPRM. We also support the agency's effort to
retrofit the existing fleet of tank cars currently used to
transport all flammable commodities. The urgency for a final rule
is apparent. We are already responding to this imperative and
are ready to move even more quickly upon issuance of a final rule,"
Saxton said.
About Greenbrier
Greenbrier, (www.gbrx.com), headquartered in Lake Oswego, Oregon, is a leading supplier of
transportation equipment and services to the railroad industry. We
build new railroad freight cars in our 4 manufacturing facilities
in the U.S. and Mexico and marine
barges at our U.S. manufacturing facility. Greenbrier also
sells reconditioned wheel sets and provides wheel services at 9
locations throughout the U.S. We recondition, manufacture and
sell railcar parts at 4 U.S. sites. Greenbrier is a 50/50
joint venture partner with Watco Companies, LLC in GBW Railcar
Services, LLC which repairs and refurbishes freight cars at 39
locations across North America,
including 14 tank car repair and maintenance facilities certified
by the Association of American Railroads. Greenbrier builds new
railroad freight cars and refurbishes freight cars for the European
market through our operations in Poland. Greenbrier owns approximately 8,500
railcars, and performs management services for approximately
238,000 railcars.
UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF
1995: This press release may contain forward-looking
statements, including statements regarding expected new railcar
production volumes and schedules, expected customer demand for the
Company's products and services, plans to increase manufacturing
capacity, restructuring plans, new railcar delivery volumes and
schedules, growth in demand for the Company's railcar services and
parts business, and the Company's future financial performance.
Greenbrier uses words such as "anticipates," "believes,"
"forecast," "potential," "goal," "contemplates," "expects,"
"intends," "plans," "projects," "hopes," "seeks," "estimates,"
"strategy," "could," "would," "should," "likely," "will," "may,"
"can," "designed to," "future," "foreseeable future" and similar
expressions to identify forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance
and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from in the results
contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that
might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to,
reported backlog and awards are not indicative of our financial
results; uncertainty or changes in the credit markets and financial
services industry; high levels of indebtedness and compliance with
the terms of our indebtedness; write-downs of goodwill, intangibles
and other assets in future periods; sufficient availability of
borrowing capacity; fluctuations in demand for newly manufactured
railcars or failure to obtain orders as anticipated in developing
forecasts; loss of one or more significant customers; customer
payment defaults or related issues; actual future costs and the
availability of materials and a trained workforce; failure to
design or manufacture new products or technologies or to achieve
certification or market acceptance of new products or technologies;
steel or specialty component price fluctuations and availability
and scrap surcharges; changes in product mix and the mix between
segments; labor disputes, energy shortages or operating
difficulties that might disrupt manufacturing operations or the
flow of cargo; production difficulties and product delivery delays
as a result of, among other matters, inefficiencies associated with
expansion or start-up of production lines or increased production
rates, changing technologies, transfer of production between
facilities or non-performance of alliance partners, subcontractors
or suppliers; ability to obtain suitable contracts for the sale of
leased equipment and risks related to car hire and residual values;
integration of current or future acquisitions and establishment of
joint ventures; succession planning; discovery of defects in
railcars or services resulting in increased warranty costs or
litigation; physical damage or product or service liability claims
that exceed our insurance coverage; train derailments or other
accidents or claims that could subject us to legal claims; actions
or inactions by various regulatory agencies including potential
environmental remediation obligations or changing tank car or other
rail car or railroad regulation; and issues arising from
investigations of whistleblower complaints; all as may be discussed
in more detail under the headings "Risk Factors" and "Forward
Looking Statements" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
fiscal year ended August 31, 2014,
and our other reports on file with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance
on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management's
opinions only as of the date hereof. Except as otherwise
required by law, we do not assume any obligation to update any
forward-looking statements.
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SOURCE The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (GBX)