SACRAMENTO — Alstom Transportation and Siemens Mobility are the two potential suppliers of trainsets for the California high speed rail project, the California High-Speed Rail Authority announced Friday.
Their identification as qualified bidders follows the authority’s release of a Request for Qualifications in August 2023 and precedes the release of the Request for Proposals and purchase of the first 220-mph trainsets.
“These world-class vendors ensure that we are procuring the latest generation of high-speed trains,” authority CEO Brian Kelly said in a press release. “With this recent federal grant, we are able to move forward with this major step on the project, purchasing trains capable of speeds of more than 220 mph to move passengers here in California in a way that transforms the passenger rail experience.” The authority recently received a $3.07 billion grant under the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program, which includes funding for the equipment, as well as additional for additional construction [see “California high speed project to receive $3.1 billion …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 6, 2023].
The contract for the equipment will also include a 30-year maintenance agreement; testing; development of a driving simulator; and other related services.
I only hope the CHSRA is smarter at writing contracts than Amtrak which seems to create open-ened contracts that have a space that says “insert desired profit here” and on the completion date put in “TBA.” Obviously Amtrak does not have the ability to enforce the terms of their contracts as we continue to see purchase after purchase. It is a travesty for the American tax payers…
Dear lord. STOP COMPLAINING. And stop with your nasty anti-Biden, nonsense.
We get, it Charles Landey, you’re the smartest guy in the world who has all the answers.
But you know what? Other people are JUST AS SMART as you, or smarter, and disagree with you and that’s OK. I wonder how many nice people read these pages, bvut refuse to comment here because you are so toxic and nasty.
Your nasty toxic behavior makes me want to stop reading this site. It’s infuriating. You want to have a nice conversation with people and all we get are your constant nasty screeds.
MICHAEL:
I respect the opinions of people who read these pages and post comments on these pages. I respect their expertise and their knowledge. I know one of them personally here Wisconsin. I have met a couple of the others along the way, one while train watching in Illinois, the other when we both lived and worked in Michigan. I NEVER, NEVER NEVER criticize another member of this forum.
If you don’t like my opinion of Mr. Biden, then post your own. If you don’t like my negative viewpoint on CalHSR, then post your analysis. If you don’t like my very low opinion of the US federal government of BOTH political parties (which I have held consistently since I studied public affairs at U-Michigan in the 1960’s), then post a rebuttal. If you disagree with me on my opinion that Washington should only support interstate transportation, then let’s hear your viewpoint.
Notice that the ultra-corrupt, anti-American Biden administration is STILL handing federal money to CalHSR. When will it stop?
It should have been obvious to anyone with a brain that CalHSR has no idea how to get from the Central Valley to Los Angeles. Then again, the Senator from Delaware (later Veep, now President) hasn’t had a brain for many decades.
You know the irony (Mark Shapp)? There was a time when Califoria led the nation in added Amtrak passenger miles. Amtrak ridership was everywhere else flat, while California was adding trains to Sacramento, Santa Barbara and San Diego. Now California is spending its money — and ours — on the worst-managed public works disaster in American history.
It should be obvious to every California voter that their state government in Sacramento is as horribly destructive as our national government in Washington. There is no solution to the mess in Sacramento but there is a solution to the mess in Washington: get rid of Biden.
You may disagree with his policies, but there are not evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Biden on this matter. None at all.
If Republicans are serious about beating Biden in 2024, they should choose a candidate who behaves like a sane adult, not a felon-fraudster-rapist-insurrectionist-traitor who is also a narcissist sociopath with the intellect of an 8-years old on a perpetual temper tantrum.
Maybe not criminal proof, but malfeasance in office, plenty…
I appreciate the utility of a robust debate about spending priorities, especially when it comes to taxpayer money (which is largely borrowed money). But I also wish the constant criticism of the California project was grounded in facts. And it is not factual to say “CalHSR has no idea how to get from the Central Valley to Los Angeles.” The segments from Bakersfield to Palmdale and Burbank to LA Union Station are environmentally cleared; the Authority knows exactly where those tracks will go, how to go about getting the right-of-way, and how to bid out the work to be done. The middle piece has taken more time to work out thanks to political disagreements in the San Fernando Valley and some serious engineering challenges getting under/through the San Gabriel Mountains, but that approval process is about to wrap up as well.
CalMatters, a very independent online newsroom that has no reservations about taking on the missteps of California state government, published a recent opinion piece on the HSR project that I commend to anyone wanting to understand where things are now and how they got that way. You can find it at calmatters.org
What a disgraceful waste of taxpayers $$$. When I think about how much conventional Amtrak service expansion could be well on the way to implementation or actually started if all previous funding had gone for new AND RELIABLE locomotives and cars, hiring rather than laying off employees (remember early October 2020), and doing PPPs with the freight railroads to restore track capacity and operating flexibility ripped out in the 1980s, I get really angry.
By the time this is ever finished….IF…..I’ll be dead and the equipment will be running in Mexico.
Alstom will have a lot of explaining its problems with Amtrak Acela-2s
Cant wait for Alstom to delay the project 5 or more years
I’m thrilled for the huge passenger market between Merced and Bakersfield that will experience the transformed passenger rail experience.
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I embedded the following in brackets in my original comment
“A note to any sarcasm-challenged readers, my comment is intended as sarcasm”
Apparently the use of brackets hid the warning
NEIL —- Why do you think Merced to Bakersfield will ever be finished?
Seriously, shouldn’t CalHSR be looking for dual-mode so that it can run on existing diesel tracks into the Bay area on the north, or LA Basin on the south?
Charles– There is no way to connect to Los Angeles using the existing diesel route. Due to the roundabout 19th century routing, it takes 5 hours from LA to Bakersfield, verses 2 hours on the interstate.
Although there are certainly a million tons of problems with this project, It seems to be lost on folks that the Merced to Bakersfield segment is simply the first segment to be build. And that is largely because they were still arguing about routing on the north and south ends. Something needed to get shovels moving and the flats of the Central Valley were the only thing available.