HORNELL, N.Y. (AP) -- French engineering firm Alstom SA is cutting 502 jobs in Hornell in western New York, leaving between 200 to 300 workers at its rail assembly plant.
The cuts, announced after months of anxious waiting, will begin on Jan. 18. In the six months through May, around 200 employees were laid off as rail contracts began to dry up.
The only rail assembly contract still on the drawing board at the plant in Hornell now is to provide rail cars for New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Alstom, one of the world's largest power and transport engineering firms, plans to bid for contracts in 2010 to build rail car fleets for Philadelphia, Miami and San Francisco.
