San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit District board is to consider Bombardier Transportation as the preferred bidder to build a new fleet of metro cars.
BART staff is recommending that the Fleet of the Future next generation of rail cars be built by North American-based Bombardier because the company’s bid represents the ‘best combination of low price, high technology and proven reliability’.
Bombardier’s bid of $1·54bn came in about 12 percent less than a French manufacturer, Alstom, while also earning the highest technical score.
Bombardier has also committed to go above the federal requirement that 60 percent of the parts for the cars be built in America and to assemble the cars in the U.S.
“BART understands the importance of the ‘Build in America’ movement and the urgency of putting Americans back to work,” BART General Manager Grace Crunican said.
“It’s why our Board adopted the nation’s first Buy America Bid Preference Policy. Bombardier took that policy to heart and responded while never losing sight of the importance of price, quality and reliability.”
Hyundai Rotem has also been shortlisted for the contract to supply the base order of 260 cars, plus an option of an extra 150.
The contract is expected to be awarded in June, which would see the first train enter service in January 2017.
