What I was trying to say or ask; Is Amtrak subject to typical government (in the US) requirements to take the lowest bid for goods and services - as long as it doesn't conflict with recent 'Buy American' requirements? Now I know, Siemens is the builder, but they have to source the parts, and perhaps the lowest bid requirements apply? And lowest bidders MIGHT play fast and loose with origin requirements, let alone quality.
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Amtrak’s Growing Pains with Siemens Locomotives
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Jeff Smith & Greg Primrose now own railroad.net!
So I wonder what has applied here.
With certain exceptions, Amtrak's Buy America statute requires Amtrak to buy only “(A) unmanufactured articles, material, and supplies mined or produced in the United States; or (B) manufactured articles, material, and supplies manufactured in the United States substantially from articles, material, and supplies mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States.” 49 U.S.C. 24305(f)(2). Amtrak's requirements apply without regard to the source of funds; if it does not receive an exemption, it may not acquire goods that are not consistent with Section 24305(f)(2), even if it does not propose to use Federal funds. However, FRA may exempt Amtrak from this requirement when one of the exemptions of 49 U.S.C. 24305(f)(4)(A) or (B) have been met. Section 24305(f)(4)(A)(iii) permits an exemption when, “the articles, material, or supplies, or the articles, material, or supplies from which they are manufactured, are not mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities and are not of a satisfactory quality.” This is typically referred to as a “non-availability exemption.”
In addition to the Buy America statute, FRA's action is subject to Executive Order 13788, Buy American and Hire American (April 18, 2017). Consistent with Executive Order 13788, FRA evaluated Amtrak's request to determine whether it had sought maximize the use of goods, products, and materials produced in the United States.
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Owner/operator of TrainSim.com (the internet's largest train simulation community)
Owner/operator of TrainSim.com (the internet's largest train simulation community)
That's the Buy America part. BUT, do they have requirements, consistent with BA, to go with low bidders if the products meet the BA requirements?
They have to justify if not selecting the lowest. That's fairly standard in procurement.
From the Amtrak Procurement manual:
From the Amtrak Procurement manual:
3.4.13 Award to Other than Low Bidder – Amtrak’s policy to award contracts to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder occasionally makes it necessary to bypass the apparent low bidder, who is ultimately determined to be either nonresponsive or non-responsible.https://procurement.amtrak.com/irj/go/k ... 202008.pdf
a. When a thorough evaluation of bids determines the low bidder not to be responsive or responsible, the apparent low bidder is rejected and award made to the bidder determined to be the next lowest responsive and responsible bidder. (The reason for rejecting the low bid shall be documented.)
b. Awards to other than the lowest bidder must be approved by the Chief Logistics Officer.
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Owner/operator of TrainSim.com (the internet's largest train simulation community)
Owner/operator of TrainSim.com (the internet's largest train simulation community)
So there is provision, but it depends on a the evaluation.
Ill assure all of you, that ALL of the Siemens locomotives have the same issues, regardless of who owns them or who maintains them. They all pretty much have the same stuff, save the Cali units probably not having cab signals and only having I-ETMS. They seem to be OK in short haul, commuter service but long hauls arent doing so hot. They def do NOT work well in cold weather. The main cause of that is the dynamic brake grid which is also the resistor grid for the DC LINK needing to heat up occasionally to melt off snow. This can become such a problem to the point where it cuts traction power and HEP to the train because it needs so much power from the DC LINK that it cannot maintain its voltage, so no traction output. You know, EMD had louvers in the radiators for this. Why is it old tech is lost in new inventions? Cali will not see these problems not will florida.
The rest of the problems with the software will vary by user, however, the poor hardware (network components, door seals, doors, seats etc) are all the same still and will experience the same failures in time.
The rest of the problems with the software will vary by user, however, the poor hardware (network components, door seals, doors, seats etc) are all the same still and will experience the same failures in time.
No good deed goes unpunished.
The cold weather design issues do make some sense, as Western Europe doesn't see winters on the same scale as North America... again, I'll blame Amtrak for not making Montana winters a mamdatory design criteria.
IIRC, Amtrak piggybacked on the multistate order, with California leading the engine choices and Illinois leading the rolling stock..... which In turn may have skewed some of the cold weather expectations or criteria.
Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
IIRC, Amtrak piggybacked on the multistate order, with California leading the engine choices and Illinois leading the rolling stock..... which In turn may have skewed some of the cold weather expectations or criteria.
Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
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Owner/operator of TrainSim.com (the internet's largest train simulation community)
Owner/operator of TrainSim.com (the internet's largest train simulation community)
Amtrak has all sorts of DEI and Financial data available in their reports section, plus host railroad report cards. But nothing showing their own mechanical dispatch reliability.... I've submitted a FOIA for that, since they don' t think that needs to be public.Thank you for taking the trouble! Let's hope they don't respond with, "We don't track that information [because it might be embarrassing], so we have nothing for you."
Ill tell you what, that FB group does a great job at tracking it. Esp stuff out of chicago. One day a train was 4 hours late because of a charger, and somebody jokingly said "i could have walked to the first station in 4 hours!" sure enough, if you googled the first stop from chicago, walking maps it said it would take 4 hours.....
What a pail of worms
What a pail of worms
No good deed goes unpunished.
Mr. Approach, Google says more like 10hrs (29 miles) CHI-NPV.
ApproachMedium wrote: ↑Tue Jan 03, 2023 1:15 pm Ill tell you what, that FB group does a great job at tracking it. Esp stuff out of chicago. One day a train was 4 hours late because of a charger, and somebody jokingly said "i could have walked to the first station in 4 hours!" sure enough, if you googled the first stop from chicago, walking maps it said it would take 4 hours.....Yeah, but groups like that only focus on the problems. They rarely if ever say anything about the routine ops. It's like the thread here posting police scanner reports about NS blocking a random crossing in Ohio... You never hear about the times it's not blocked, so is it 100% of the time, 2% of the time? Context matters.
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Owner/operator of TrainSim.com (the internet's largest train simulation community)
Owner/operator of TrainSim.com (the internet's largest train simulation community)
Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Tue Jan 03, 2023 1:33 pm Mr. Approach, Google says more like 10hrs (29 miles) CHI-NPV.Not the same train then. Theres a lot more than one train that leaves chicago, the specific train the first stop would take 4 hours to walk to. I forget which one it was, it might have been an Illinois state train.
It doesnt matter to me how often they run without problems, only because they have problems SO OFTEN that posts are made daily almost. To the point where multiple trains will fail a day. And it isnt always because of the cold weather, that just makes it worse.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Reading all this constantly reminds me of LIRR's junker diesel fleet, which was pretty bad also when new - and never got any better. One loco even caught fire. 25 years later, you kind of hope your train will get where it's going - and it's not supposed to go very far. One of the early problems was the heavy dependence on computers - though nothing as intense as today's. I hope it does better after a while than LIRR's.