Some Details on New Car Order

[communipaw]

www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/
base/news-9/1112335124183500.xml

For PATH, new cars will be pulling into the station by 2008
P.A. clears $499M to replace oldest U.S. fleet and upgrade facilities

Friday, April 01, 2005 BY RUDY LARINI Star-Ledger Staff
The oldest passenger rail fleet in the United States is to be replaced under a half-billion-dollar contract the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey authorized yesterday for the purchase of new cars for its PATH train system.

The $499 million expenditure for 340 new cars is the largest single investment the Port Authority has made in PATH since the agency acquired the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad in 1962.

"This is truly a historic day for the Port Authority and for the thousands of people in New York and New Jersey who rely on the region's mass transit system each day to get to their destinations," Port Authority Chairman Anthony R. Coscia said.

PATH carries 200,000 passengers a day between Hudson County and Manhattan and had a total ridership of 57.7 million last year.

The contract, awarded to Kawasaki Rail Car Inc., to design and build the new cars is part of an $809 million PATH upgrade authorized by the Port Authority in September 2003. The program included signal improvements, car maintenance equipment and renovations at PATH's rail car maintenance facility in Harrison.

During the past three years, the Port Authority has also invested $566 million to rebuild a temporary World Trade Center PATH station and the Exchange Place station in Jersey City and renovate the rail tunnels underneath the Hudson River after 9/11.

The Port Authority expects to break ground this summer on a $2 billion transportation hub at the World Trade Center site.

"These initiatives continue to advance the goals of the 10-year strategic plan that the board approved last December by enhancing the mobility of people throughout the region," Coscia said.

The Port Authority expects to have the first of the new rail cars in service by late 2008 and the entire fleet replaced by 2011.

http://www.hudsoncity.net/tubes/newcars-jj.html

[communipaw]

(From Canada.com)

Bombardier loses major New York contract for commuter coaches

Updated at 17:04 on April 1, 2005, EST.
MONTREAL (CP) - Bombardier Transportation has lost a major contract to provide commuter coaches for New York, its second big contract loss in the same week that the company eliminated its stock dividend.

Bombardier was counting on the contract with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to maintain jobs at its large plants at La Pocatiere, Que., and Plattsburgh, N.Y. Instead, Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. will provide 340 rail cars for $499 million US, as part of an $809-million total investment program by the transit authority that includes maintenance of the coaches.

Losing the contract, revealed in New York on Thursday the same day as Bombardier reported its year-end results, will not require immediate layoffs, David Slack of Bombardier Transportation said in an interview. "Obviously we're disappointed by the outcome, especially considering our presence in New York and the long tradition of products we've got in the region there," Slack said. "It would have provided job security for both La Pocatiere and Plattsburg. We will be conducting a full assessment of the outcome in order to learn from it."

The Port Authority program, announced in June 2004, attracted three bids. Anthony Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority, would not say if Kawasaki's bid was the lowest of the three the board considered, but he said it offered the "best value" because the total cost of acquiring, operating and maintaining the trains would be lowest with the Kawasaki cars.

On Wednesday, Canada's defence department awarded a 22-year military pilot training contract worth $1.8 billion to a group headed by a small company from Kelowna, B.C. Bombardier Aerospace, which holds the current pilot training contract until the summer, complained that a consortium led by Kelowna Flightcraft got preferential treatment in the bidding process. The defence department denies this.

Regarding the Port Authority contract, Bombardier had intended to build the stainless steel coaches in La Pocatiere and do final assembly in Plattsburgh. It had also made plans to manufacture components in Mexico for the bid to reduce costs, which would have cut 300 jobs at La Pocatiere, but now that plan has been scuttled.

The Quebec plant currently employs 1,600, but 350 jobs will be gone by year-end, as announced late last year. It is busy on two other large contracts: electrical multiple unit cars for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and 100 multilevel cars for New Jersey Transit. Slack said the Port Authority contract was not included in Bombardier Transportation's backlog, which stood at $21.3 billion US on Jan. 31.

Bombardier Inc. reported Thursday a loss of $85 million US, the third yearly loss, as revenues advanced to $15.8 million. The company also eliminated its dividend. Bombardier Transportation, based in Berlin, is in the process of reducing its workforce by 7,600 people, and closing several plants to improve profit margins. That division had revenues last year of $7.6 billion. Bombardier shares (TSX:BBD.SV.B) were off 12 cents, or 4.44 per cent, at $2.58 on Friday, in addition to 13 cents lost Thursday.

The Port Authority system, called PATH, runs from downtown Newark to Lower Manhattan and Herald Square, carrying about 200,000 riders each weekday. Kawasaki Rail, a unit of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. of Japan, will make the car shells in Lincoln, Neb., with final assembly in Yonkers, N.Y. Deliveries will start in 2008.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

[UpperHarlemLine4ever]

Does anyone know what these car will look like; any artist's renditions?

[N.Y. State Of Mind]

From what I hear, it would look something like the R142.

[JLo]

I was at an event were Anthony Coscia (sp) spoke about future PA projects. I think we are going see a lot of press about the PA in the next 6 months.

[Tom V]

I was at an event were Anthony Coscia (sp) spoke about future PA projects

Please tell...

[JLo]

As far as specifics, he talked mostly about ARC, but he made it clear that the PA will be a player in almost all major metro transportation projects. I think the PA is trying to focus on becoming the new Robert Moses.

[blasito]

I found Empire on the Hudson to be a great book on the history of the PA. It goes into detail on how they completely failed when they tried to co-ordinate freight rail in the region and build a tunnel under the Hudson, and how they fought with Robert Moses over the Bus Terminal. When the PA was founded it was a bold leader in solving transportation problems but slowly lost focus as it became more politicized. The closing chapters cover the more recent PA and their diversions into art collecting, jobs programs, and real estate (WTC), that show an agency completely adrift from its original mission. IIRC, their takeover of the H&M was just a payoff to NJ in order to get support for the WTC.

It would be good news to hear they are back on track to improving transportation and mobility in the port district. Maybe now we can get that freight tunnel.

[AKelley728]

From what I hear, it would look something like the R142.

More specifically, it would be like the R142a, not the R142. The R142a was built by Kawasaki, the R142 by Bombardier.

I would be my hope that the new PATH cars are built to a similar spec to the MTA R142a; maybe leading to car pool of sorts (similar to the MTA/NJT agreement for west of hudson service?).

[R142A]

You will never see the MTA using a pool with their NYC subway system. The NYCTA will use a dedicated fleet of cars and will not use anyone else's cars. Keep dreaming...

[Head-end View]

Well, let's hope that whatever it looks like that the PA will retain the light, airy look with large windows like the current fleet. And keep the large windows in front as well, so it will be railfan friendly. We haven't been having very good luck in recent years with new fleets in general in the NYC area.

[UpperHarlemLine4ever]

Don't think you're going to see a railfan window anymore. From what I gather from other threads this full width cab thing is an FRA regulation which for some reason even applies to the subway systems. PATH is a railroad under the FRA's jurisdiction.

Would be nice if they looked similar to the 142's or 142A's. Guess we won't know until they are delivered.

[JLo]

I don't think it is FRA-inspired. PATH wants to eliminate the conductor position and just have the engineer/motorman. You need full compartments so the engineer can check the doors on both sides of the train, as there will be no one else to do it.

[Head-end View]

I have no problem with full-width cabs per se. They can be built with windows so you can still see thru. Have you ridden the Washington D.C. Metro? They have full cabs with one-person operation. But the left side of the cab you can see all the way thru from a normal seated postion in the front half of the car. Way to go !

Whether they are still permitted to be built that way is another question. As well as whether PATH will do it even if they can......