For $3 million per car, AnsaldoBreda throws in the duct tape at no charge.
Photo by Yours Truly via Flickr. It can be found in the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool.
The Metro board voted 8-3 Thursday to … [sigh] … boy this is a difficult one to write. Only because there isn’t boilerplate handy and there’s only so many times a tired angle can be spun. Yes, the Metro board has added to its pile of crap decisions that’s gotten so big that it’s time for L.A. to look for a sculptor whose medium is feces to make something that’ll get into the Guinness World Records and possibly help tourism.
OK, the facts. Metro has approved a $300 million contract to AnsaldoBreda for 100 more rail cars, the promise of almost 2,000 temporary and permanent jobs and a pocketful of magic beans, the Los Angeles Times and Daily News report. No doubt the key driver behind passage was the promise of guaranteed jobs — judging by the workmanship of the new light rail cars, the workers are going to stay busy for a long time.
Some congratulations are in order for the Italian firm. The Metro contract was quite a coup. Despite the recent train order coming in years late, showing quality and weight problems in extensive pre-revenue and soft in-service testing when the units arrived, and managing to get an eleventh hour “Hey, we’re good for it” financial guarantee from its parent company, AnsaldoBreda will usher in an era of stable “clean tech” jobs in Los Angeles.
Ever the upstanding corporate citizen, AnsaldoBreda says it can do this for just about anywhere it is seeking a contract. Back in March, Yonah Freemark reported in the Transport Politic about a pattern of a little wheeling and a lot of dealing:
The problem … is that the company has been trying to make this deal with cities all over. It told Miami and Madrid that it would build plants in those cities if they awarded rail contracts. Even more astonishing, AnsaloBreda moved … to Pittsburg … on the assumption that it would build Los Angeles’ rail cars – as well as those for San Francisco and San Jose – there. How many places can this company have production facilities? How frequently is it willing to move its headquarters? What would the move it’s now promising to Los Angeles mean to communities in Northern California that would likely lose their jobs in the process?
Commenters followed up with links to Breda-related problems on both U.S. coasts and across the Atlantic in Europe.
More of these late, overweight, far from great cars are coming, though Breda should not be in a big hurry to complete the job. A few of the silvery rail cars are running now on the Gold Line. They are distinguished by the narrow seat pairs and noisy HVAC units that began leaking just a few weeks into their breaking-in period. They are also noticeable by the blank gray wall and small operator’s cab window that’s in place where the large windows were on the Siemens cars. Somehow riding in a Breda feels like a scene from a Bergman movie.
Ahh, so goes life in Los Angeles. Maybe the elusive sculptor will find it inspiring here.
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