VentureForth
Engineer
Just a snippet from Friday's TWAA:
Now TWAA goes on and on about the woes of foreign controlled manufacturers of rail cars. But my main question here is what are the ramifications of the Viewliner order? We gonna see them in 2014 or not at all?Remember the heartburn and ultimate heartache that went into the design and manufacture and subsequent legal battle over the Acela trainsets Amtrak uses on the Northeast Corridor? It’s back, in a 21st Century setting.
CAF-USA, an American fully owned subsidiary of Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles of Spain – a worldwide know manufacturer of passenger rail cars of all types – which is building nearly $300 million worth of new Viewliner-type cars for Amtrak in the form of sleepers, diners, and baggage cars has reportedly received a “stop work” letter from Amtrak.
Information provided to The Business and Politics of Passenger Rail indicates CAF-USA was sent a stop work letter on Friday, April 6, 2012. One of the reasons indicated was CAF-USA is far behind meeting an agreed upon production schedule.
CAF-USA has performed – and completed – other work in the United States for regional and local transit agencies such as the City of Pittsburgh, and is currently working on a contract for the Houston, Texas transit system. CAF-USA performs work at it’s facility in Elmira Heights, New York. CAF-USA has actively bid on other work in the United States, too, such as for New Jersey Transit.