Also note, BTW, that SMART’s new preferred “Buy America” vendor is, in fact, a Japanese firm.

-marc

http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/9/3/0/2930.1213266744.jpg

This is the train SMART staff very much wanted to purchase, except that the manufacturer (Colorado Railcar) is now bankrupt (and accused of fraud). Note that SMART still nonetheless features artist’s rendition of Colorado Railcar vehicle on its home page and promotional materials. The SMART Executive Director formerly worked for Trimet, though now has distanced herself from the whole Colorado railcar fiasco.

So now SMART’s minuscule staff proposes to build — from scratch — their own very own FRA-compliant railcar — a task WAY beyond their capabilities. The idea that building a custom choo-choo is quicker than filing the paperwork for FRA waivers (which they’ve had a DECADE to work on) just doesn’t pass the laugh test.

Worse still is all the baggage that comes with FRA-compliant operation. Even something as simple as on-board bike access is a nightmare when dealing with FRA. And, of course, the huge extra expense from running super heavy Amtrak-style trains. Contrary to what was reported, it is very easy to purchase off-the-shelf light DMU trains that get 2x (or more) fuel economy relative to a (hypothetical) heavy American model — meaning SMART could double their train frequency with no extra operational cost.

Really, when reading through the SMART reports, one sees textbook example of institutional dysfunction and insanity. Note, in particular, the design-goal to have trains compatible with Amtrak(!!). And where staff actually boasts that the manufacturer of Caltrain’s infamously craptastic gallery cars is interested in submitting bids for heavy DMUs.

first, the ‘buy america’ clause is garbage – unfair, anti-competitive, etc.

second, are we really throwing away low floors? so i’ll have to carry my bike on-board? on a rail line designed after the year 2000?

america can put a man on the moon, but can’t make a low-floor rail car?

can’t make a light rail car?

can’t get regulations together to unfairly favor domestic production?

‘heavy’ is great — i guess — if there’s actually a place for heavy. do we really need a few extra tons zipping up and down the tracks a few dozen times a day? common sense tells me that can’t be good for energy consumption, even despite the larger capacity. if railroads had any funding to do inventive things, then it might not be a big deal, but that’s not the case.

what is so special about america that only one company in the world would even consider building rail cars for us? are we that hated?

SMART will have to share tracks with freight? temporal separation if they went with light rail?

it’s all just insanity.

let’s take some of the massive subsidies the airline makers get — boeing and all the rest — and put it into rail service.

let’s get apple to start making rail cars so we don’t have to buy those ugly Portland streetcars if we want to ‘buy american’.

we wanted to be ‘futuristic’? *#*# me.

ok – i have absolutely no idea what i’m talking about, here, but damn.

and DMU? what we got against electricity?

i wonder if StreetsWiki has some info about why heavy-as-**** rail cars are ‘teh awesome’ and light rail cars are hazardous to our health.

we have to keep on those fools about the bike/walk path. and we need to make sure we get some great bike parking/repair/etc. facilities at big stops. you heard that, BRT fans? make yourselves useful for a change.

blah. it’s miller time.

should be a nice ride up to wine country. get hammered. roll home. nice.

of course, not sure what happens when we get back to Larkspur and the last ferry out left 3 hours ago.

Oh, and they have Free Wi-fi.

Well, murph, I hate to say it, but your smart-ass comment has made me want to give golden gate transit a try.

Let’s see … go for a vaporware design which exists nowhere else in the world, the only past attempt at which (Colorado Rail Car) was a unmitigated disaster, a designed which will be untested, is guaranteed to have wretched reliability and atrocious energy efficiency (they exxplicitly _promise_ this!) and to be delivered years late (compare Portland’s “rah rah USA number one” all-American craptastic fiasco with the fabulous Swiss-built Stadler vehicles in Austin (TEXAS!!!!!!!) or in New Jersey) … all based on the premise that they’ll be delivered “sooner”.

What morons. What complete cretins.

Note that SMART’s GM was formerly associated with the unmitigated disaster of Portland’s West Side rail earmark pork barrel failure fest.

Bay Area Transportation: the best the world has to offer!

I’ll bet a year’s salary that none of budget, schedule nor availability bechmarks will be met by the third world (designed and built in the U-S-A!) vehicles that result from this scam. Anybody at SMART or any of the World Class Rail Professionals at LTK (the World Class consultants who recommended a program that guarantees greatest cost and greatest consultant input) want to take me up on the bet?

http://www.nctpa.net/vine.cfm

You can also do it with a bike + bus + ferry to make it even easier.