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California and Amtrak cancel joint high-speed train bid
Duh! Predicted this long-time ago. Amtrak needs a 160-mph tilting train to replace the Acela on the existing NEC sooner than later, CHSRA needs a 220-mph “Bullet Train” for a new high-speed railway some time in the coming decades.
Amtrak should throwout the “Buy America” garbage and buy from Alstom some FRA-compliant (like the new Talgos) Pendelino sets built in their Pendelino factory in Italy.
Writing’s on the wall.
Building trains for NO market… still happens after all these years…
The differences should have been glaring at the onset.
So one size does not fit all?
The joint procurement deal was widely criticized at the time given the likely differences between the projects. It sounds like a good thing, regardless of whether you believe CAHSR will go ahead or not.
I agree with BENJAMIN J TURON, we need to ditch the absurd “Buy American” requirements.
Look, we all know at the end of the day these trains are coming from the experts on High Speed Rail in Europe or Japan. All “Buy American” does is force them to go through unnecessary extra expenses by building a temporary factory in the United States to build the trains, and then close it down after the orders are filled. It isnt creating jobs, its just preventing manufacturers from wanting to build for us and is making these trains cost a lot more expensive than they should.
But when have passenger rail advocates ever cared about facts or economics?
Building trains for NO market? So you say, Mr. Bell! You sound like a character that use to comment on this forum that NEVER had a good thing to say about passenger trains.
I’m all for American made coaches and locomotives for Amtrak (like the new electrics for the NEC), but an exception needs to be made for this type of HSR equipment that will only be bought in limited amounts. If other countries can buy our Boeings, we can buy their TGVs.
Granted that there is much more to railroading than Amtrak, transit, and high-speed rail … but for someone commenting on a TRAINS forum, Mr. Nichols in Mississippi seems to me to be rather anti-rail …
Money could be spent connecting cleveland…colubu…cincinnati, and detroit, toledo, cleveland/chicago.
Money could be spent connecting cleveland…colubu…cincinnati, and detroit, toledo, cleveland/chicago.