Alstom Corporation of Hornell, NY, a major worldwide player in equipment and services for power generation and rail transport, reports that trace amounts of asbestos were found in their plant during the refurbishing of rail cars.

The Hornell Evening Tribune reports that the company announced the finding late last week and were addressing the issue. “Alstom Environmental Health and Safety staff has identified dust found in a vehicle being refurbished contained trace amounts of asbestos in a duct not typically opened during the refurbishment process for that vehicle,” said a prepared statement issued by the company. “The production line has been stopped while an expert assessment is carried out and appropriate personnel, safety and abatement precautions are put in place. The line is expected to resume production shortly.”

A spokesman for Alstom said the stoppage only affected one production line and proclaimed the find as “no big deal” for the company. “The statement speaks for itself,” said Chuck Wochele, Alstom’s vice president for business development North America.

Alstom’s Hornell facility, which employs 1,300, recently underwent a $7 million upgrade. They currently have contracts to build 400 new cars for New York City Transit, remanufacture 238 cars for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, and build 184 new cars and remanufacture 364 cars for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 10:16 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.