China's CRRC wins $1.3 bln deal to supply Chicago rail cars

[Dungeness]

China's CRRC wins $1.3 bln deal to supply Chicago rail cars
Markets | Thu Mar 10, 2016 1:37am EST
Related: STOCKS, MARKETS
SHANGHAI, MARCH 1


China's CRRC Corp has won a $1.31 billion order to build rail cars for Chicago, the city's transit authority said, marking the train maker's second major supplier deal in the United States.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) said on Wednesday that it had awarded the order to build 846 railcars to CRRC subsidiary CSR Sifang America, which had submitted the lowest bid. It did not name the other bidders.

State-owned CRRC Corp, the world's biggest train maker by revenue, was not available to comment on Thursday. The company, formed from the merger of former rivals CNR Corp and China CSR, won its first U.S. contract in 2014 when CNR was awarded a $567 million deal to supply subway trains to Boston.

Chicago will first place a base order of 400 cars, with options to buy the remainder in the coming years, the CTA said. CSR will build a new $40 million factory in the city, with an aim to see the first cars going into service in 2020.

Egged on by Beijing, China's railway firms are aggressively bidding for contracts in overseas markets including the United States. Chinese firms have so far expressed interest in building high-speed rail lines in California and Las Vegas. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Stephen Coates)


China's CRRC wins $1.3 bln deal to supply Chicago rail cars| Reuters

 

[cirr]

Way to go

CTA board approves contract to replace half of rail cars

The Chicago Transit Authority board voted Wednesday to approve a $1.3 billion contract for 846 rail cars — representing about half of the CTA's total fleet.

Mary Wisniewski

Chicago Tribune

March 9, 2016

A monumental overhaul of the Chicago Transit Authority's rail car line was launched Wednesday with the approval of a $1.3 billion contract to replace about half of its fleet — the biggest car purchase in the agency's history.

The new generation of 846 rail cars will be built at a new manufacturing facility on the Southeast Side.

The winning bidder to build the 7000 Series cars is CSR Sifang America, whose partners include the Chinese state-owned rail car manufacturing company CRRC Qingdao Sifang and CSR America, which handles North American operations. The same manufacturer is currently building cars for the Boston transit system.

A look at CTA rail cars through the years.

The last batch of CTA rail cars, known as the 5000 Series, were designed in the past decade and built by Bombardier Transportation, which lost this year's bid.

The new cars will replace 2600 Series cars produced in the 1980s.

The 7000 Series cars will have a different seating arrangement than the 5000 Series cars, which have mostly aisle-facing seats. The wider, New York-subway-style aisles were intended to provide more standing room during rush hour, but have proved unpopular with some riders, who do not like getting their feet stepped on while seated, or having their views blocked by standing passengers.

The new cars, with LED lighting and 37 to 38 seats each, will be a hybrid of the 5000 Series and the 3200 Series currently seen on the Brown and Orange Lines. The front of the cars will have aisle-facing seats to maximize standing space and make it easier for passengers to get on and off, while the rest of the car will have a mix of forward and rear-facing seat pairs and the popular single seats.

The contract is expected to create 169 jobs — employing mostly union, high-skilled, sheet metal and electrical workers — at an assembly facility at 135th Street and Torrence Avenue, city officials said. The facility is expected to build the 7000 Series cars over 10 years — with prototypes coming out in 2019, and cars going into the system in 2020, said CTA spokesman Brian Steele.

In a buoyant news conference at CTA headquarters after the board's vote, Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the deal historic and said he hoped the facility could also be used for other rail car orders from around the country. He expects suppliers to be drawn to the Hegewisch facility, bringing even more jobs. He said the deal was an example of the city using its purchasing power to create local employment, as it did when Chicago Police ordered its new cars from the South Side Ford plant.

"It's one thing to order new cars and the customers will get a great experience. It's another thing to order those cars and create great manufacturing jobs in the city of Chicago, and bring back rail-car manufacturing to its proper home," Emanuel said.

CTA president Dorval Carter said the purchase will give the CTA one of the country's youngest rail fleets — with the average age of a car dropping from 26 years in 2011 to 13 years once all the cars are delivered— and save $7 million annually in maintenance costs.

While the board approved a $1.3 billion contract, the cost over time could be about $1.4 billion because of inflation as the CTA exercises its options to go beyond an initial purchase of 400 cars, Steele said.

The CSR Sifang America bid came in $226 million lower than Bombardier's.

Like the 5000 Series cars, the new cars will also convert the direct current supplied by the rails to an alternating current for propulsion, which provides a quieter, smoother ride, Steele said.

The new cars will be bought with a mix of federal and local funds, the latter provided by a bond issue.

The CTA first asked for proposals for the rail cars in February 2013, but the next year rejected the initial bids as incompatible with the 5000 Series. The agency then asked for the bids again, dropping the compatibility requirement and including a "U.S. Employment provision," asking bidders to provide the number and type of new jobs they planned to create.

Jorge Ramirez, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, said he hopes Metra would also consider using the facility for rail car manufacture.

CTA board approves contract to replace half of rail cars - Chicago Tribune

 

[dy1022]

hmmmmm ....
strange strange.....


send cbg to china's south sea but buy chinese trains like no tomorrow for american cities!

 

[Abacin]

While US Military-Complex is stirring anti-China sentiments worldwide, US business is still widely pro-China for mutual benefits of both sides. Military or Business, Money or Gun. US is at a critical crossing.

Rising debts will force US to choose pro-Business. The interests of those anti-China pioneers around China will be sacrificed. In the end, Money talks.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

While US Military-Complex is stirring anti-China sentiments worldwide, US business is still widely pro-China for mutual benefits of both sides. .

i think the blurb below explains why

CSR will build a new $40 million factory in the city, with an aim to see the first cars going into service in 2020.