Posted on Monday February 1st by The Infrastructurist | 1,501
Fox Business anchor Brian Sullivan asks an interesting question: Who will be making our HSR trains? Thankfully, it likely won’t be U.S. trainmakers, none of which have ever produced high speed trains with the level of sophistication and technology that a shiny new HSR line will require. Watch Sullivan discuss this issue with Infrastructurist editor Melissa Lafsky.
February 1st, 2010 at 4:18 pm
It’s really great to see at least one sector of our society that is truly bipartisan. And it certainly hasn’t always been this way. Heck, even my home state of Texas is working on a high speed rail project.
February 1st, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Hey Melissa…off topic, but I thought I should let you know. You are hot!
February 1st, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Great interview, especially compared to the one on the previous post.
February 1st, 2010 at 8:47 pm
As soeone who has been reading this site everyday for… a while, it’s nice to see you getting out there and making a difference. great job! also, what Danny says.
February 1st, 2010 at 10:33 pm
Wow…not what I expected for a fox news interview.
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:25 am
Good job with this interview. Keep up the great writing. As an unemployed electrical engineer, specializing in infrastructure work and a supporter of HSR and Rapid Transit, I seriously hope that this $8 Billion is just the first down payment on the new infrastructure we need in this country to bring back some stability to our economy.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:59 am
Yeah, not bad for Fox… Talgo is contracted to build a train for Wisconsin DOT and has pledged to build a factory in the state to produce the trains as well as train workers (no pun intended) on maintenance of them. I believe that this will be a trend as high-speed rail gets off the ground in the US and it will keep jobs in America; true some of the profits will go overseas, but bottom line is that it will bring more jobs to the every day American worker (boo-hoo, corporate execs.) Also there are MANY engineering and construction firms in the US that will benefit from the infrastructure work - laying track, building stations and bridges, upkeep and operation. This is all direct benefit of the trains themselves, not to mention the advantages of faster ground travel.
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Who will build the trains? Not a big deal. The real jobs will be in laying the track, building the bridges, stations, etc.
Tech transfer anyone? The Chinese are doing it, we should/could too.
February 3rd, 2010 at 3:06 am
Its worth pointing out again that streetcars are being made again in the US by a US company and after only about 8-10 years after the modern streetcar was debuted in the US. Hopefully HSR can see a similar timeframe for a US HSR railcar maker to emerge.
What about GE? Might they build up their rail division and try to capture the American HSR market?
There’s no reason the US can’t have a railcar builder even if most of its market is exports and competing with Bombardier, Alstom, Siemens, Kawasaki, Breda, Skoda, Talgo, Kinkisharyo. Its not like Canada is any more of a market for railcars than the US and yet they have Bombardier. Better yet, the US is much more of a market for railcars than Canada. Its a real shame Budd and Pullman Standard couldn’t have stayed as American companies (and not folded into Bombardier) and just focused on exporting overseas in the dark days of rail in the 70s and 80s. Had they survived a few years longer they could have been there for the rail/transit renaissance that began in the late 80s and early 90s. It would have been smooth sailing from then on.
February 3rd, 2010 at 6:44 am
GE is incapable of building trains that aren’t severely overweight. Even their export diesel locomotives are much heavier than competing European models.
And Bombardier is Canadian in name only. Most of its work is done in Europe, most of its labor force is in Europe, and most of its expertise comes from having bought a German rolling stock manufacturer. Even the headquarters of Bombardier Transportation is in Berlin; Montreal is only the corporate headquarters.
February 3rd, 2010 at 3:49 pm
And how much of that is due to exporting locomotives built according to US FRA crashworthy requirements? I seem to recall other companies making overweight railcars, Bombardier Acela and Breda Muni come to mind immediately.
February 5th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Heavy weights are normally a positive for freight locomotives. Freight locomotives often have ballast added to increase weight and, therefore, available tractive effort.
As a cost cutting measure, heavy freight components (frames, trucks, heavy-duty electrical components) get incorporated into passenger designs to shorten development periods and use more off-the-shelf items. I’d say this is one reason US-built passenger locomotives tend to be heavier than internationally available designs.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Very good, but I am surprised that Melissa didn’t mention that even if we buy foreign trains, there will be many jobs created in the US to construct and operate the rail lines.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
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