rohr turbo wrote:Tad said no one made any moves to prepare P42 replacements during the Obama years.
Split hairs all you want, but it sure appears Amtrak was involved in technical specs (both corridor&LD), must have negotiated price (LD), and got in the queue. It's not nothing.
Amtrak wasn't involved in the IDOT/Caltrans technical specs because of any bold moves by the Obama Admin.... They had a seat at the table because they were expected to be the operator and maintainer of the equipment, and it had to be compatible with their own equipment. Period. Full stop. That's cold, hard, established practice since 1971.
Maybe you're not familiar with how government procurement works, but no, Amtrak wouldn't have been allowed to negotiate anything without its own RFI/RFP process being initiated, which was done under Anderson's tenure. Nor did they "get in the queue" -- VIA will see their deliveries arrive before's Amtrak will. If they were in the queue, VIA would be waiting instead of Amtrak....
This isn't splitting hairs or spinning for political positioning.... it's fact. You just have to read the actual procurement documents (public record with some redactions around pricing) instead of the almost-garbage that advocacy groups put out.
You seem hell-bent to try and show the Obama Admin was proactive, but aside from HSR grants which all went towards infrastructure, they didn't do much for the long distance network. They focused on corridors.
I know that some of you may be too blinded by partisan views to see otherwise, but Richard Anderson (and by association the Trump Admin) seem to have done more to re-invest in Amtrak's corridor and long distance rolling stock and motive power than any previous Administration has done in over 20 years. And again, these are the guys routinely vilified as hating rail....
Without promoting one side or the other, I think y'all might want to reconsider who is and isn't a friend to sustainable rail. There's been lots of sizzle out of many politicians, but not so much steak. What Anderson is doing is steak.
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