MTA board wants to keep talking with Italian rail car firm

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed today to delay for two months a decision on whether to ask an Italian rail car company, AnsaldoBreda Inc., to manufacture 100 additional light-rail cars for MTA -- a $300-million project.

Top MTA executives have been unhappy with AnsaldoBreda’s performance under its current deal to build 50 light-rail cars and had planned to let the option to manufacture an additional 100 cars expire March 31.

But the company embarked on an extensive lobbying campaign to save the contract options -- drawing in the muscle of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor -- by offering to build a rail manufacturing plant in Los Angeles. More than 150 union workers packed the meeting chambers today.

The office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the MTA board chairman, circulated a proposal this week for the two-month delay, which was offered formally at the meeting by the mayor’s appointee   Richard Katz. The 13-member board approved the delay 10-1. MTA board member Pam O’Connor said she was abstaining to register her skepticism about the company’s promises to locate a manufacturing plant in the area. The company is negotiation with the Community Redevelopment Agency to possibly use a site in downtown Los Angeles. New MTA board member Jose Huizar, a Los Angeles city councilman, registered a “conflict” vote, because he has accepted contributions from one of the groups lobbying for AnsaldoBreda, according to his staff.

A number of members said they wanted further investigation of AnsaldoBreda’s delivery of the initial 50 cars -- which MTA executives says are three years behind schedule -- before making a decision about whether to approve a new 100-car project.

Board member and Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich was the sole vote against the motion. He said he believed the staff proposal to invite other rail companies to bid for the 100-car contract might help the MTA get a better price. Under the AnsaldoBreda contract options, the MTA would pay AnsaldoBreda $2.9 million for each of the additional 100 cars.

Villaraigosa said he still needed answers about the company’s performance, but that the chance to create jobs with the proposed rail manufacturing plant at a time of high unemployment was ample reason to grant the extension.

MTA staff members say the cars are 6,000 pounds heavier than specified in the contract and have design problems, including incompatibility with other cars in the Metro fleet.

AnsaldoBreda officials say Metro is using a flawed formula to calculate the weight of the cars, that the delays were due to design changes requested by the agency and that an MTA staff member agreed to waive the compatibility requirement because AnsaldoBreda would have had to simplify the technology in their cars to allow them to communicate with the older cars.

In a March 16 letter to the MTA, AnsaldoBreda’s CEO pledged that -- if awarded the 100-car contract -- it would build the rail manufacturing plant in Los Angeles County, put a weight alarm in the cars at no cost to Metro and fix the compatibility issue on the initial 50 cars for $3.5 million.

Over the 60-day extension, MTA staff will be preparing a request for proposals to purchase 100 cars, which would proceed if the MTA and AnsaldoBreda could not reach a deal.

-- Maeve Reston

Comments

[Jeff]

Get more cars! The Gold Line trains (and I'm sure other lines as well) are far too crowded during the commuting hours. Even a single additional car per train during those times would make travel so much easier! I fear it is only a matter of time before someone is injured from standing in those crowded trains.

[Tom A.]

Considering all the buttering up AnsaldoBreda has done to our alleged leaders and the reliability issues with the LRV's they've delivered so far (Glitches in Italian cars are part of the fun; glitches in Italian trolleys are inexcusable.), NOT considering other firms would be criminally irresponsible.

[richard schumacher]

Breda products have long been junk for many transit customers. Building them locally would only mean getting locally-built junk. It would be a stupid way to create local jobs.

[Chatter]

"Get more cars! "

Yeah, who cares if they work?

[Hugh Brockington]

Is there an American Manufacturer we can use in this recession? Why is an Italian company building our Los Angeles light rail cars and shipping them over?

[Khun Bill]

What happened to buy American?

[Jake]

And just why are these new rail cars not compatible with the older cars? So the older cars will be replaced with cars from Breda!!
This explains why Breda is willing to build a new factory in LA - which even Villaraigosa has probably figured out. How much did Breda contribute to our Mayor for his mayoral campaigns????

Buy American!

[Ken H.]

This company has made the promise to build plants to just about every city they do business with. What a crock. They obviously have Villaraigosa deep in the pocket of their Italian made suits.

[Guido]

Hey, for Breda and the Italian way of doing things, three years late is considered "just in time" performance. wait til you see how long it takes to build the the assembly plant in LA! and the plant will probably get "economic stimulus" money from the feds.

[Interurbans]

The MTA Board wimp’ed out by letting the Breda lobbyist and union pressure make their decision.

Why did the MTA select the first 50 Breda cars in the originally? Considering theirs and other transit systems experience, why are they evening consider buying an additional 100 cars makes little sense. Every city in the US and most cities world wide that have bought Breda cars have had major problems including Cleveland, San Francisco and Boston which had to spend millions to rework their systems to accommodate the Breda cars. Do to the poor fit, trim, level of manufacturing and design the cars continue to be very expensive to operate and keep running. The Los Angeles Red/Purple line cars can also be counted on this list. The MTA has had from the start major problems keeping enough Breda cars running to fulfill the required schedules. With this background and the knowledge in the transit industry of just how bad Breda cars are, how could the MTA consider Breda as a candidate for bid let alone actually select them to supply their cars. Now the MTA wants to order another 100 substandard troublesome cars on top of the first 50. How many years will the MTA and the train riders of Los Angeles have to live with poor quality cars before they will have a chance to replace them with a quality product from the many quality LRT car providers world wide? Breda may have the low bid to start, but after the change orders and problems even before the cars go into service they cost more. Again I ask “why is the MTA considering buying an additional 100 inferior, poor quality cars when there are so many less expensive good quality cars to choose from? So who is going to win, Breda and their lobbyist or the train riders and the people who will be paying for the cars? I would think that we have a better chance of other car manufactures locating their plant in Los Angeles for a 100 car order than we would have for Breda considering their history. Simians had an assembly plant near the Blue Line shops used to assemble the P2000 cars now running on the Green and Gold Lines.

I can understand why the Unions want Breda cars on the MTA. Do to their many problems their will have to be a much larger work force to keep the cars running than if the cars were from a more reliable manufacture.