VRE is selling 5 antique gallery cars

VRE is selling 5 antique ex-metra Gallery cars. They've posted it on their website.

http://www.vre.org/about/procurement/RFI%2008-013.pdf

VRE intends to keep 30 old cars for parts as they are interchangeable with the new cars

Whats more important is sale of the 14 or so Kawasaki Bi-levels in same link

Wow, VRE really is on a selling spree. First the Mafersa's, then the Kawasakis, and then finally ther ancient gallery cars. I was wondering if they actually were going to get rid of all of them. I know the Nashville Music City Star has already purchased 10 gallery cars from VRE. I wonder if VRE is selling them for the $1 they purchased them for.

Unlikely.

The got them as-is for $1 and spent some money (not much, but not $0) for repairs. Plus, it snows much less in Virginia than in Chicago. The new owner will be getting (slightly) better-condition cars, ultimately, than VRE got.

Maybe $2?

Kind of ironic... Metra bought these cars back from VRE for $10,000. Metra is in the same situation that VRE was in... no money for new cars, yet capacity on Metra trains is over crowding. Seems stupid on Metra's part, as they were in such a hurry to get rid of all these cars back in 2003.

metraRI wrote:Kind of ironic... Metra bought these cars back from VRE for $10,000. Metra is in the same situation that VRE was in... no money for new cars, yet capacity on Metra trains is over crowding. Seems stupid on Metra's part, as they were in such a hurry to get rid of all these cars back in 2003.

Are you serious?! Metra bought those ancient gallery cars back! 'Stupid' is definitely an understatement. For Metra to practically give away those gallery cars, then repurchase them at 10K when they are at the end of their practical lives is just crazy. Where did you find this news?

I thought that some new commuter statrtup, such as Music Star (who already purchased some of VRE's gallery cars) or UTA, would purchase them.

don't confuse the purchase price for paying for refurbishments.
The $1 per car was basicly a transfer price to unload cars payed for with federal dollars to another agency.
The $10 000 is what VRE spend to make the cars fit for duty.
So now Metra has to pay that to get cars back if they want them.

metraRI wrote:Metra Forum: "I Want My Cars Back"

VRE has posted the May board meeting agenda and it says Metra has bought 5 of the cars back.

I wonder if METRA would be interested in VRE's Kawaski cars
http://www.vre.org/about/Ops_board_item ... genda.html

Considering that Metra has a fleet of 800+ gallery cars, Metra being interested in Kawaski would be very unlikely. Likely scenario would be waiting for Illinois to fork up money to buy additional new gallery cars.

DutchRailnut wrote: don't confuse the purchase price for paying for refurbishments.
The $1 per car was basicly a transfer price to unload cars payed for with federal dollars to another agency.
The $10 000 is what VRE spend to make the cars fit for duty.
So now Metra has to pay that to get cars back if they want them.

Indeed, people tend to focus too much on sticker price and not enough on total cost of ownership. (If people could do math, then inkjets would be relegated to photo printing, while laser printers clean up in the home market as well as the office.)

Actually, Metra is getting even better of a deal than that. VRE spent about $300,000 each to refurbish the cars, not merely $10,000. (Still only 10-20% of what it would have cost to purchase new cars).

From http://www.vre.org/about/minutes/minutes-june2000.htm (emphasis mine):

Total project costs for the overhaul of twenty gallery cars is $6.08 million (including contingency funds). This project is fully funded using both federal grants and $1.28 million from the sale of 18 Budd rail cars (14 cars to California and 4 cars to Vermont).

So basically, Metra is getting $290,000 worth of free improvements to the cars, minus 8 years of minor wear-and-tear in sunny Virginia (as compared to icy Chicago). Pretty decent deal considering they needed the cars in a crunch, and couldn't wait for the legislature to dump tens of millions of dollars on them.