New York Air Brake

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New York Air Brake (NYAB) has provided brake control systems to railroads around the world since 1890, with a focus on helping customers, in the words of its mission statement, to “improve railroad safety and operating performance.”

NYAB has grown to 920 employees and is one of the largest employers in the Watertown area, located near the eastern edge of Lake Ontario in upstate New York. Having access to global markets is critical to NYAB’s operation—approximately 35 percent of NYAB’s business is connected to international sales. In many ways, the jobs back home in New York rely on sales of NYAB products to customers abroad.

NYAB supplies train control products to companies like GE, a locomotive builder with worldwide sales. Many locomotives are purchased by foreign companies with the help of the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank, making reauthorization of the Bank critical. Without access to credit through Ex-Im, GE’s foreign customers might purchase locomotives from another country that can offer a better deal—a lost opportunity for both GE and NYAB.

“It comes down to jobs,” says Brian Morrow, Director of Locomotive OE Sales at NYAB. The Ex-Im Bank means jobs for NYAB, and that’s why NYAB is sending one of their employees to Washington later this month to share this story and urge members of Congress to keep the Ex-Im Bank open for business.