As long foreign firms continue to flood our domestic railcar market with cheap imports, any hope of reviving the high quality American railcar industry will be non-existent. After Budd closed in 1986 all of the skills necessary to design and built a good railcar in this country have basically evaporated leaving us at the mercy of a parade of government subsidized Johnny-come-lately Asian tigers peddling fall apart designs. Before we start having to deal with the made in China label with whatever lead or radiation that entails the government regulations for the spending of federal transit dollars needs to change requiring that all design and frame fabrication needs to be carried out domestically. When I say frame fabrication I mean that the only thing imported is the ore. I can never see why domestic final assembly is seen as adequate, let alone some sort of victory. There's no value added in it. Any old schulb can fit rod A into slot C. We need to get the high tech, high skilled design and metallurgical work back in this country. Let's hope the new economic stimulus that focuses on investments in transportation also invests in the industry that supports it which was stupidly allowed to die off.
Jersey_Mike wrote:As long foreign firms continue to flood our domestic railcar market with cheap imports, any hope of reviving the high quality American railcar industry will be non-existent. After Budd closed in 1986 all of the skills necessary to design and built a good railcar in this country have basically evaporated leaving us at the mercy of a parade of government subsidized Johnny-come-lately Asian tigers peddling fall apart designs. Before we start having to deal with the made in China label with whatever lead or radiation that entails the government regulations for the spending of federal transit dollars needs to change requiring that all design and frame fabrication needs to be carried out domestically. When I say frame fabrication I mean that the only thing imported is the ore. I can never see why domestic final assembly is seen as adequate, let alone some sort of victory. There's no value added in it. Any old schulb can fit rod A into slot C. We need to get the high tech, high skilled design and metallurgical work back in this country. Let's hope the new economic stimulus that focuses on investments in transportation also invests in the industry that supports it which was stupidly allowed to die off.Wow. First off, since when have American brands produced "quality" anything, in any industry? If America loves the free-market so much, then domestic brands should be forced to compete with foreign brands instead of getting handouts, like the ridiculous bailout for the auto industry. The problem with American manufacturers, these days anyway, is that all they focus on is their bottom line and profit margins, instead of looking at what the consumer wants and producing a quality product accordingly.
I don't like anything made in Korea, because their quality doesn't come close to those from European or Japanese manufacturers. China probably has the worst quality standards in the world for cars, railcars, and everything else. GE is probably the only major American manufacturer that actually cares about quality products and has consistently churned them out. Well, they left the railcar business also, but I think Kawasaki, Alstom, B'dier etc., have more than provided as adequate replacements.
