Bombardier introduces high-speed locomotive

The maker of America’s fastest train is shopping around a new product that could bring high-speed rail service to areas outside the Northeast.

Bombardier Transportation says its new “JetTrain” locomotive, powered by a jet engine, can reach 150 mph without needing overhead electrical lines like those used by Amtrak’s high-speed Acela Express.

Bombardier led the consortium that built Acela Express, which operates in the Boston-New York-Washington corridor the only electrified intercity corridor in the nation.

Pierre Lortie, president of Montreal-based Bombardier, said Tuesday that he was confident the equipment problems that have plagued Acela Express will not hurt sales of the new locomotive.

Lortie said the company could begin closing deals in the next few months.

Economy: Firms trim inventories

Uneasy about the economic recovery, businesses trimmed their stockpiles of unsold goods in August for the first time in four months.

Inventories on shelves and back lots edged down by 0.1 percent in August, a turnaround from July when businesses boosted their stockpiles by a solid 0.4 percent, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The decline represented the first time since April that businesses pared inventories, suggesting that companies wanted to keep stocks lean given economic uncertainties, including possible war with Iraq.

Businesses’ sales, meanwhile, grew by 0.2 percent in August, a slowdown from the brisk 1.3 percent increase posted in July.

Atchison: MGP hopes to reopen plant in two months

MGP Ingredients plans to resume some alcohol production in about two months at its plant in Atchison, which was damaged last month in an explosion and fire.

The Sept. 13 fire damaged the plant’s distillery and injured four people.

The company, which changed its name from Midwest Grain Products Inc. last week, has determined that the explosion occurred when alcohol vapor ignited in the still house of the three-story distillery. The source of the ignition has not been determined, said company spokesman Nate Cairney.

MGP temporarily has laid off 41 of its 300 plant employees because of the damage.

Aviation: Delta’s losses grow

Delta Air Lines reported a wider quarterly loss Tuesday and said more job cuts are on the way as the airline continues to struggle after last year’s terrorist attacks.

The nation’s third-largest airline also said it would continue to slash its flight schedule, defer delivery of all new airplanes and mothball its fleet of large MD-11 aircraft used for long-range flights.

The Atlanta-based carrier’s third quarter loss of $326 million, or $2.67 per share, came during the peak summer travel season and compares with a loss of $259 million, or $2.13 per share, during the year-ago quarter.