If the decision was simply a business one for more space I am OK with it but to me this appears as a political decision made to appease politicians in California, if that is the case this is really stupid and it is a big reason why American Built Railcars cost so much. One of your goals as a manufacturer is to build a backlog of orders that extends 3-5 years into the future before you build or expand into another plant. Rare do I see manufacturers build a plant based on two orders. Maybe they are doing this to be more competitive with delivery dates on a future Amtrak order?
They keep opening and closing plants everywhere to appease local politicians (so they can claim they created jobs) and it is a very good bet those costs are passed on in the railcar order each time rail cars are ordered. I have a hard time believeing the costs are absorbed entirely by the Manufacturer, in the case of Talgo in Milwaukee they were passed on (and thank goodness that no-bid order fell apart). Perhaps there are some savings in doing this in that the shipping costs from NY to CA of a completed railcar are probably fairly significant. Oh well, not sure anything can be done about this. As a taxpayer it is frustrating to watch.
Open - Close - Open - Close - Open - Close.