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All of the T's brand-new locomotives have to be repaired

The good news, the Globe reports is that the manufacturer is paying for the repairs. The bad news is that that means the T has to go back to those creaky old locomotives it thought the new diesels would replace to pull all the new commuter-rail coaches that have also had their issues.

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Hyundai Rotem, the company which delivered defective passenger rail cars nearly 2.5 years late, is suing the state for awarding the contract to build the new Red & Orange line cars to a Chinese vendor that bid far less.

Why they were even considered in the first place shows a major failure of government procurement.

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...and the burden is on the state (or, when applicable, the Feds or the city) to demonstrate valid reason to reject a financially reasonable bid, assuming it hits all the marks. While past bad experience with the company is a valid reason to reject a bid for similar work, the company cannot be prevented from submitting the bid for that reason alone. It can be rejected pretty quickly, though.

Since putting a bid together for any sizeable job takes time and money, once a company has been rejected, most won't waste resources submitting bids over and over.

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Sure, let them submit the bid. And then let the state promptly reject all bids from companies which have shown sub-standard performance on previous state contracts.

The fact was that Hyundai was one of the companies to get though other levels of screening/approval and had the Chinese firm not had the lower price it likely would have gone to Hyundai. They should have been disqualified or at least greatly handicapped given how horrible their last big project turned out.

The fact the state (or feds) keep giving contracts to the same people who keep screwing up is a major problem.

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When I was still a federal employee, one particular phone company won repeated contracts despite being barely usable/competent. But their bids were soooo low that Congress actually pressured agencies to accept them-- the low cost allegedly outweighed the inconvenience to employees. It sucked, our customer service started to suck, everyone was pissed, and the company made much bank

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I find it terribly ironic that in Rotem's lawsuit one of the reasons they give that the contract shouldn't have been awarded to CNR is CNR's inexperience in North America, which is the exact same reason Rotem had so many issues with the new bilevels! They, along with SEPTA's SIlverliner V's, were Rotem's first ever attempt at building something for North America, and both were huge failures.

Rotem of all companies has absolutely no leg to stand on here, calling another manufacturer inexperienced.

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Rotem's delivery problem was started at SEPTA.

The SEPTA order slipped well before the MBTA's. They were engaged in building similar coaches for the South PA system, and that order had to be completed before they could start th eorder for the MBTA. The SEPTA order was delayed because they could not get raw materials to build the main bodies of the coaches because the raw materials were tied up elsewhere. At least one shortage was blamed on raw materials being diverted to the Middle east war efforts at the time. the SEPTA order also failed due to serious labor disputes between So K. managers and USA union workers. It's sort of bad form for a manager to face slap a worker for talking back. Maybe that is tolerated in So. K but not here. Hosting an AC-equipped lunch room for the Korean staff and making the union workers sweat over lunch in the plant also didn't go over well. This was all reported in Philly area press and can be verified.

So that is the real reason the MBTA coach order slipped.

I'm not surprised that the locos have issues. Last fall I took what I thought was a nice video of Loco #2013 on the north side, but as it started to leave the station where I got off it started to chug bad and blow black smoke. You expect that of an older diesel but not from a new unit fresh off the assembly line, so I saw this coming. It sounded and looked like an aged RS-1. The train people will understand that. As it got speed and stress on the system eased, it evened out, but still...

Let's remember that the only reason Motive Power got the locomotive contract was because they invoked the "Buy America" act which requires final assembly (at least) to be done on US soil. The MBTA had chosen a foreign manufacturer with a long track record of success. MP stopped that contract, and then they were the only bidder to manufacture these units since the only remaining company (or 2) were not interested in building a passenger locomotive.

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People who want to blame the MBTA for this repair should remember that GM recently had to recall 2.35 million cars and trucks. Privatization does not ensure perfection.

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Is that Motive Power was the MBTA's second choice. They'd originally selected a Spanish locomotive company (which was going to build the engines in the US), but an Idaho congressman got wind of the deal, made noise and the feds decided the Spanish company didn't meet enough "made in the USA" provisions and vetoed the deal.

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That is pathetic and sad. If public transit vehicles need to be made in the US then vehicles that use public roads like cars and trucks should have the same requirements. Vehicles made in the US are more expensive and suck, be they cars and trucks or trains.

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Normally, I'd agree that "Buy America" is a stupid idea and has led to a great deal of unnecessary pain for American transit agencies. Especially with anything to do with passenger-carrying equipment.

However, due to the freight rail industry, diesel-electric locomotives are one type of equipment that America is exceptionally good at supplying.

Motive Power is an experienced company and so is GE, the supplier of the prime movers used within.

This just seems like a bit of bad luck and some growing pains for an updated design. I think it could have easily have happened with any supplier.

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GE built the prime movers (diesels), electrical systems and traction motors. MPI put the whole thing together.

GE is so swamped with freight locomotive orders (the thing they're really good at, especially as their only domestic competitor EMD has slipped) that they don't have any interest in passenger orders, for Amtrak or commuter railroads.

And MPI's had a big loss, not just on issues with this order, but with the fact that Amtrak is going to Siemens for it's next order of diesels. It's a tough market building passenger locomotives when each order is increasingly customized and delivered in small batches.

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GM is essentially a government sponsored enterprise and has been since WWII. Be it through direct subsidy, bailout, or regulatory collusion.

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