With Lorie's appointment, we've expanded our board's gender diversity, four of our 11 directors are female.
One ton of freight can be moved by rail almost 500 miles per gallon of fuel.
Additionally, moving freight by train instead of trucks reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75% per tonne travel and it reduces congestion on wear and tear on bridges and byways.
In the quarter, we delivered 4,800 railcar units, a 17% increase from the prior quarter, driven by our core North American market.
Our lease fleet utilization increased to 98% and our leasing team generated robust cash proceeds and gains through regular lease fleet optimization and monetization transactions.
Further, we experienced significant absence here another quarter as approximately 12% of our workforce contracted the virus.
Our owned fleet has grown by over 25% from the end of fiscal 2021 to around 11,000 units.
And in addition to managing our lease fleet, our management services, or GMS group, continues to provide creative railcar solutions for over 25% of the North American rail freight fleet.
Greenbrier's secured new railcar orders of 8,500 units valued at $930 million.
With deliveries of 4,800 units in the quarter, the book-to-bill increased to 1.8 times.
Orders through the first half of the year are already over 85% of fiscal 2021 activity.
New railcar backlog of 32,100 units has a market value of $3.6 billion and provides multiyear visibility.
As a reminder, our new railcar backlog does not reflect 3,200 units valued at $180 million that are part of Greenbrier's refurbishment program.
Fleet utilization ended the quarter at 98%.
As part of our enhanced leasing strategy, GBX Leasing, closed our inaugural asset-backed securitization by using -- by issuing $323 million in investment-grade rated notes with a blended coupon rate of 2.9% and an anticipated repayment date of January 2029.
Our capital markets team executed well this quarter and syndicated 1,400 units, the highest level of activity in nearly two years.
Second-quarter highlights include revenue of $683 million, deliveries of 4,800 units, which includes 400 units from our unconsolidated joint venture in Brazil.
Aggregate gross margins of 8% reflects continued effects from ramping of new railcar production, the impact of the omicron variant, mitigation of supply chain, labor shortages, and an additional warranty accrual for certain older railcars.
Selling and administrative expense of about $55 million was higher sequentially, reflecting increased employee-related costs, consulting, travel, and legal expense from higher levels of business activity.
Net gain on disposition of equipment was $25 million.
Non-controlling interest provides a benefit of $1.6 million, primarily resulting from the impact of line changeovers and production ramping at our Mexico joint venture.
Net earnings attributable to Greenbrier of approximately $13 million or $0.38 per diluted share, and EBITDA of about $52 million or 7.6% of revenue.
In the quarter, we recognized $2.1 million of gross costs, specifically related to COVID-19 employee and facility safety.
This expense increased almost 75% sequentially and was our highest level in the last 12 months.
Greenbrier's liquidity increased to $804 million at the end of Q2, consisting of cash of $587 million and available borrowings of $217 million.
We expect to receive a large portion of our $106 million tax receivable in fiscal Q4, reflecting delays in processing with the IRS.
At the end of the second quarter, effectively all of our outstanding leasing debt was at fixed interest rates and approximately 90% of our corporate non-leasing long-term debt was fixed.
Together with executing on over $2 billion of new and refinanced borrowing facilities over the past year, including the ABS lease financing completed in Q2, this positions Greenbrier quite well as we move forward.
On March 31, Greenbrier's board of directors declared a dividend of $0.27 per share, our 32nd consecutive dividend.
Based on yesterday's closing price, our annual dividend represents a dividend yield of approximately 2.3%.
Since reinstating the dividend in 2014, Greenbrier's returned nearly $380 million of capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
Based on current business trends and production schedules, we're affirming Greenbrier's fiscal year 2022 outlook to reflect the following: deliveries of 17,500 to 19,500 units, which includes approximately 1,500 units from Greenbrier-Maxion in Brazil.
As a reminder, in fiscal 2022, approximately 1,400 units are expected to be built and capitalized into our lease fleet.
Selling and administrative expense guidance is unchanged and expected to be approximately $200 million to $210 million.
Gross capital expenditures of approximately $275 million in leasing and management services, $55 million in manufacturing, and $10 million in maintenance services.
Net of proceeds on equipment sales of $150 million, leasing capex is expected to be $125 million.

Summary:
Second-quarter highlights include revenue of $683 million, deliveries of 4,800 units, which includes 400 units from our unconsolidated joint venture in Brazil.
Net earnings attributable to Greenbrier of approximately $13 million or $0.38 per diluted share, and EBITDA of about $52 million or 7.6% of revenue.
Based on current business trends and production schedules, we're affirming Greenbrier's fiscal year 2022 outlook to reflect the following: deliveries of 17,500 to 19,500 units, which includes approximately 1,500 units from Greenbrier-Maxion in Brazil.