Passenger Trains > New Haven Line M8's are put out for bid to 3 contractor

from :
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-railcars5dec06,0,7525299.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines

Design finished, new train cars are put out to bid

By Mark Ginocchio
Staff Writer

December 6, 2005

Heralded by Gov. M. Jodi Rell as a "significant step forward," the state Department of Transportation and Metro-North Railroad have completed designs for new rail cars on the New Haven Line.

The technical specifications for the car's electrical and mechanical parts have been passed on to three companies qualified to bid on the new rail cars, the DOT announced yesterday.

"This is a new day for the state of Connecticut and our 110,000 daily commuters who ride the New Haven and branch lines," DOT Commissioner Stephen Korta said in a statement yesterday. "This next step in the procurement process is a very important component that will start the selection of a vendor to build the new rail cars."

The bid specifications were completed close to the timeline estimated by the DOT and Metro-North when Rell announced her $1.3 billion legislative transportation initiative in February. The initiative includes $667 million for 342 new rail cars.

"We are aggressively moving forward to modernize the Metro-North commuter rail system as quickly as possible," Rell said in a statement. "This milestone was reached on time -- and that is my expectation for the rest of this extensive project."

Metro-North President Peter Cannito said he expects to sign a contract for the new cars by spring. The first 50 rail cars could be delivered by the end of 2008

Specifications for the state's new M-8 rail cars are similar to the cars recently deployed by New York state on Metro-North's Hudson and Harlem lines, DOT officials said.

Those cars were built by Quebec-based manufacturer Bombardier Transit Corp., one of the three qualified bidders for the Connecticut rail cars.

The other two bidders are Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. of Yonkers, N.Y., and Siemen's Transportation Systems of Sacramento, Calif.

The Hudson and Harlem line cars have proven reliable, routinely operating more than 200,000 miles between failures, DOT officials said. They are designed to shelter weather-sensitive components; the New Haven Line's rail cars were designed with critical components underneath the car and exposed to the elements.

Transportation advocates said the completion of the specifications is good news for commuters.

"I'm very pleased to hear this and I hope plans for the new rail cars continue to stay on time," said Karen Burnaska, co-chairwoman of the Coastal Corridor Transportation Investment Area, an advisory group to the state's Transportation Strategy Board.

Burnaska was curious whether the specifications addressed the rail car's energy efficiency, an issue that was raised earlier this year by the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council.

DOT spokesman Chris Cooper said the specifications include language asking the contractor to explore "reasonable ways to be energy efficient." But there are also important performance standards that must be met, he added.

The state also announced that a consultant has been retained to help design the rail car's interior. A design could be completed in the next month and tested by Metro-North consumer focus groups at the beginning of next year, railroad spokesman Dan Brucker said.
Copyright © 2005, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.

So, more boxes on wheels, huh?

Compared to the stuff that is being put out elsewhere (and referring to commuter stock only), it's embarassing.....

:((

After reading some of the specifications for the VRE car order I have to wonder why it takes any time to create the specifications. Why must transit be stuck with too many consultants in almost every project? Seriously, does the state think that the three manufactures do not know what they are doing? The technical portion of the bid document should be at most fifty pages long.

You young people must realize that transportation equipment has always been designed by a committee or consultants. From 1916 to 1924, the Kuhlman Car Co. of Cleveland built hundreds of Peter Witt type street cars of a similar but never identical design. Some were double-end, some single-end, some had 13 windowns, some had 12 etc. With the exception of one joint WWI order for Gary, IN and Erie, PA each purchasing company had to use its own specs because anyone else's specs were "not suitable for our lines!"

Lets see MNCR wants M7 based modified product from Bombardier.
Kawasaki is trown in for good measure.
Siemens has not build any FRA heavy weight equipment.
And Alstom is not even mentioned ??
fair bidding or shoe in for Bombardier ??????????

Since Bombardier was not even present at the American Public Transportation Meeting and Expo in Dallas in the fall, I wonder how many more cars Bombardiers intends to build for any railroad or transit system?

stone23 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Since Bombardier was not even present at the
> American Public Transportation Meeting and Expo in
> Dallas in the fall, I wonder how many more cars
> Bombardiers intends to build for any railroad or
> transit system?

There can be any number of reasons why a vendor chooses not to exhibit at a particular trade show unrelated to their business plan. It may be as simple as not feeling the cost of exhibiting was justified by the potential return. Given that Bombardier is the market share leader in North America they may have felt less compulsion to pay to get their message out than those trying to expand their presence in the North America.

Dave