Talgo retools in Milwaukee NEWSWIRE

MILWAUKEE — Spanish train manufacturer Talgo has entered the U.S. passenger-car overhaul market with a contract to rebuild transit cars for Los Angeles, using a plant it formerly occupied to assemble its own passive-tilt trainsets for the stillborn Wisconsin high-speed service.

The first of 37 married pairs of Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority A650 heavy rail vehicle cars to be overhauled were unveiled July 14 at a news conference in a large city-owned factory on Milwaukee’s north side.

The cars are used on Los Angeles’ Metro Red Line and were built by Italy’s Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie between 1992 and 2000. They now require extensive updates of propulsion equipment, braking, signaling, and other components. An option for the overhaul of additional car pairs could bring the value of the total contract to nearly $73 million.

Metro’s Red Line, opened in sections from 1993 to 2000, links Los Angeles Union Station with North Hollywood, Calif.

There was an air of vindication at Friday’s ceremony at the former A.O. Smith factory in Milwaukee, now a symbol of Wisconsin’s fractious politics.

Presiding at the news conference with Talgo CEO Antonio Perez was Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the Democrat who was a key figure in the 2009 effort to expand Amtrak’s Chicago-to-Milwaukee service to Madison, the state’s capital.

Although Wisconsin had secured $810 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for two Talgo trainsets and assorted support infrastructure, Republican Gov. Scott Walker scuttled the project after his election in 2010, fulfilling a campaign pledge. The governor objected to the state’s obligation to cover ongoing maintenance and operating costs.

The decision amounted to Wisconsin reneging on its contract with Talgo, and a subsequent lawsuit filed by the manufacturer resulted in a nearly $10-million settlement, with Talgo getting to keep and sell the two completed trainsets.

The manufacturing operation in Milwaukee was shuttered after four Talgo trainsets were completed. Two for Oregon were later delivered for Amtrak’s Cascades service. The two Wisconsin Series 8 trainsets are stored at Amtrak’s Beech Grove (Ind.) maintenance base, awaiting disposition, most likely to California for Los Angeles-San Diego service if a plan by the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency comes to fruition.

Now, despite any bitterness over the demise of the Wisconsin high-speed project, Talgo is back in Milwaukee, the result, Perez said, of efforts by the city to nurture a relationship of trust.

“This is a huge milestone for Talgo,” said Perez, “the first time we will maintain non-Talgo equipment.”

Talgo has leased the Milwaukee plant for five years, with an option to extend it if more overhaul business comes Talgo’s way. Rebuilding the Metro car pairs will create 18 to 20 new jobs, officials said.

In celebrating the moment, Barrett cited the project’s ability to create jobs in a corner of Milwaukee’s sprawling Century City industrial corridor, once the home of A.O. Smith’s huge automobile frame manufacturing plant.

“We never let hope die, we never let the relationship die,” Barrett said. “From Los Angeles and Hollywood all the way to Milwaukee — we’re very proud of that.”