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Taking an age-old mode of transportation and giving it a boost of 21^st Century technology, that’s what GE’s RailEdge Movement Planner does for freight rail travel. It’s essentially a breakthrough software system that serves as an air traffic control system for freight rail. It helps railroads take into account train schedules, traffic control systems and train movements relative to each other and comes up with an optimized traffic plan for the trains, even down to the best speed at which to travel to keep the flow going throughout the railroad. Norfolk Southern and GE Transportation today announced the success of the new technology, which as described in the video below, has already been rolled out along a 200-mile stretch in Georgia. The efficiency gains from RailEdge can increase the average speed of trains by 10 to 20 percent, which translates into as much as four miles per hour. In the world of freight rail, that’s a whopping amount when you consider that every mile per hour faster a freight train travels, a railroad can save up to $200 million a year in capital and expenses.

With much of its locomotive fleet nearly four decades old, Nigeria is eager to inject new technologies into its rail system as it embarks on widespread upgrades to its passenger and freight lines. As we reported in May, GE recently signed an agreement with the government of Nigeria that aims to throw open the door to a host of collaborations in transportation, oil and gas processing, electric power generation, water treatment, healthcare, aviation and integrated safety and security systems. As part of that goal, today the first of five GE locomotives arrived in the country — with 20 more slated for delivery later this year.

With the demand for sugar-based ethanol fuel soaring, the world’s largest grower and processor of sugarcane — Brazil-based Cosan — has inked a deal with GE Transportation for 50 new freight locomotives. The deal marks a win for GE’s growing presence in the critically important country — and it underscores how open markets continue to benefit North America in terms of jobs and new business as the engines will be made at GE’s Grove City, Pennsylvania plant and the locomotives will be built by GE Transportation South America, our affiliate plant in Contagem, Brazil.

A flurry of announcements flew out of GE’s Clean Technology Week in China, with new agreements announced today that cover cleaner coal technology, high-speed rail, and locomotive manufacturing. The deals not only further cement the role that GE’s advanced technologies are playing in in the heart of China’s booming economy, they are creating jobs in both countries, including about 500 in the U.S. Today’s deals follow Sunday’s announcement that GE Aviation and China’s AVIC Systems are creating a global avionics joint venture for commercial aircraft, and yesterday’s news that China is buying 300 Evolution Series locomotive assemblies to upgrade its existing fleet. In the video below, Mark Norbom, President and CEO of GE in Greater China, describes the impact that the deals will have.

The new joint venture planned between GE Aviation and AVIC Systems of China, which was announced in Beijing yesterday, places GE technology and expertise squarely in an area of explosive growth. As Lorraine Bolsinger, president and CEO for GE’s Aviation Systems business, says in the audio clip below: “With 9 percent traffic growth, and a rising middle class which is largely underserved, China is the world’s fastest growing aviation market and we need to ensure that GE and the United States is part of this growth.”