Caught
this article on
Portland Transport. Colorado Railcar just seemed like trouble when they came out with a vehicle for transit agencies to run without engines and passenger cars. I don't know what it was but when I first started hearing about them, the organization just seemed shady. Gut feeling I guess. A lot of people had talked about the Colorado Railcar being used in
Austin. I'm glad they didn't go that direction.
it's obvious some folks from TriMet management should be in jail. don't expect it to happen, though. and this from Oregon, where it seems people pay attention to these things a bit. damn. doesn't bode well for the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteColorado Railcar was heavily endorsed by a Republican from Florida. I do not like to play partisan politics, but it makes you wonder why an agency such as Trimet would even go with a company like Colorado Railcar.
ReplyDeleteit was because CRC was the only available option for the product trimet wanted (a new RDC) plus they were american-made. diesel lrvs or lightweight european models wouldnt work with the shared freight trackage due to FRA rules. at the time it looked like a pretty good deal for trimet to get brand new cars that suited the need. in retrospect however the best option would have been to rehab some old budd rdcs especially since there were 3 or 4 already in oregon and available from the discontinued portland to astoria rail service.
ReplyDeletei'm not so sure about sending trimet management to jail. trimet is probably the best managed transit agency in the country. sure they made some mistakes here but if this was most transit agencies in the US they would have done nothing to remedy the problem and would have just let the new stations and track sit unused for years as a huge disgraceful embarassment. all of trimet's recent projects have opened on time and on budget and even one has opened several months early and millions under budget.