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Houston transit agency wants answers for LRT delivery delays
It seems that this is typical. What went with the concept that you build first and then sell what you built?
What happened was every transit district has their own specifications. No more buying off the shelf.
The transit folks from Cinncinati and Kansas City need to read this.
RTD in Denver, CO has been burned several times in the recent past by buying from the low bidder.
Normally, this would be so funny in so many ways, from the perspective of somebody with experience in the tool and die sector. But it isn’t, because sooner or later somebody is going to have to pay for these massive screw-ups. That somebody will be the provider class, the taxpayers currently funding transit systems.
Upon accepting the lowest bid, Metro is getting what it paid for. The agency should drop CAF and place orders with Siemens that built Metro’s initial light rail fleet with great success. Public agencies tend to fore go the tried and proven and venture with a firm with less experience and lower quality just to cut costs. CAF is more expensive in the long run.
Totally agree with Don
Buy American, if any American builder is interested.
Washington had trouble with their CAF built cars as well. Sao Paulo’s CAF commuter cars look like junk, but seem to operate OK. I sometimes wonder how they stay in business. How does this suggest ATK’s Viewliners will come out?
Isn’t there a maxim that says something to the effect of “Go with the second-lowest bid because the lowest is cheap for a reason”? Yeah, lesson learned
P.S. Someone revive Pullman-Standard and do it right.
I’m glad someone else has commented on what I’ve been thinking: how will this bode for the Amtrak cars? The same article down here in Houston noted Amtrak’s troubles in the last paragraph, noting that CAF was a year behind schedule.
I’d have gone with Siemens, too, as they came through on both sets of trains that we have. Now to actually have compatible couplers to connect the first set with the second set.
Our American transportation system could not support a viable manufacturer that could stay in business!
The problem is that all government agencies must accept contracts from the lowest bidder. If not, the taxpayers are going to bitch like hell. Too bad they don’t realize that by buying cheap crap, it’s going to cost more in the long run on account of inferior products thus spending more money to make them right which in most cases, the problems remain uncorrected. This has nothing to do with the “provider” class, Goosie.