Link: Rail company's poor track record taints MTA train order - Whittier Daily News
Rail company's poor track record taints MTA train order
By Stacey Wang, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/22/2009 06:51:01 PM PDT
The county's transportation board is considering ordering 100 light rail cars from a company that is already three years late on the last order.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board at its meeting today will consider ordering the rail cars from Italy-based AnsaldoBreda, Inc.
The cost would be $300 million, any final decision on the purchase will likely come in September, officials said.
Fighting skepticism caused by undelivered trains, the firm has made the MTA a financial guarantee in the event of an untimely delivery of any of the 100 cars, said Chris Lehane, consultant for AnsaldoBreda.
"We are more than willing to make any modifications that MTA wants to do, and we are Ansaldobreda, the Italian-made Light Rail Vehicle for Metro Blue, Green and Gold Lines are 6,000 pounds overweight and cost $2.9 million each. Ansaldobreda Light Rail Vehicle on the Sierra Madre Goldline Station Wednesday, July 22, 2009.(SGVN/Staff Photo by Walt Mancini/SVCity)
happy to pay for them in addition to a $400 million guarantee," Lehane said.
AnsaldoBreda cars are of the highest quality, and many of the delays are due to changes requested by the MTA, Lehane said.
"Breda is focused on working with MTA to provide LA with the Michaelangelo of trains," Lehane said.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich is the sole board member to repeatedly vote against an extension since the proposal was made in March.
"Promises of letters of credit and performance bonds are worthless to the public if there are no rail cars, unless MTA plans to fund taxi vouchers instead for our transit users," Antonovich wrote to board members last month.
He wants the contract to go out to bid, which is what the MTA staff has recommended.
An official of a Los Angeles-area rail advocacy group agreed.
"These cars cost millions of dollars each. It could be a 40-year mistake if they go with it," said Dana Gabbard, executive secretary of Southern California Transit Advocates.
MTA Board member and Duarte Mayor John Fasana did not return phone calls seeking comment.
AnsaldoBreda in 2003 was awarded a $158.7 million contract to deliver 50 light rail cars by 2007.
It has delivered 27 cars - each are 6,000 pounds over the MTA limit, incompatible with other cars and cannot run on the Green and Blue lines.
"Not only does (AnsaldoBreda) not provide a good product, but they've been so late that it's almost a non-qualifying performance," said Michael Cano, transportation deputy for Antonovich.
Cano said AnsaldoBreda has curried favor with the board by promising to build a manufacturing factory in Los Angeles County, a measure supported by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.
"It's all political; it's not performance - and the loser is the taxpayer," Cano said.
Due to the recent passage of Measure R - a half-cent sales tax that will pay for transportation projects during the next 30 years - additional cars will be needed beyond the 100 being negotiated.
Antonovich is worried that the county won't have the cars before extensions to light rail lines are completed during the next decade.
"Once you get 100 cars down, it will be very hard to say `no' to them after. That's why there's so much political pressure," Cano said.
Complicating matters is a new proposal Wednesday from AnsaldoBreda that offers more incentives for the county to approve the contract for more trains, Cano said.
He guessed the board would delay its decision until September, he said.
stacy.wang@sgvn.com
(626) 962-8811, Ext. 2104
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