The Federal Transit Administration denied the request of a Spanish locomotive company hoping to insert itself into a bid to build passenger locomotives in the Boston area, a decision that should benefit Boise-based MotivePower Inc.
MotivePower, a subsidiary of Wabtec Corp., was the only domestic bidder in May on an order for diesel electric locomotives by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. Vossloh Espana S.A., a Spanish unit of a German company, sought a waiver of the “Buy America Act,” which requires transit agencies to demand American assembly and 60 percent American parts when using federal matching dollars, according to a news release.
Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, Rep. Mike Simpson and Boise Mayor David Bieter had asked that the FTA deny the waiver request because it could cost hundreds of jobs, not only in Boise but across the country. The lawmakers said it could lead to the loss of 200 Boise manufacturing jobs and 85 high-skill engineering jobs to Spain.
“MBTA has not established sufficient grounds for a public interest waiver,” Federal Transit Administration Deputy Administrator Sherry Little wrote in a letter today to the MBTA in denying the waiver. “MBTA has not argued that this procurement involves the introduction of significant new technology. Nor has it stated how a waiver would benefit the riding public.”
Crapo heralded news of the decision.
“We are protecting American jobs against an effort to basically go out and create another bidder to undermine an otherwise successful bid application,” he said in an interview today. “What the FTA did was exactly right. They put aside the politics, because they saw there was pushback on both sides and ruled on the side of the correct principles in the law.”
Crapo said he believed that MBTA wanted a waiver to reopen the bidding process and “play one company off the other” to get reduced bids.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo told the Boston Globe on Oct. 30 that the agency filed the “Buy America” waiver at Vossloh's request, but took no position on whether it should be granted or whether it would hire Vossloh if approved.
According to a report in the Globe, the MBTA projected that the first 28 locomotives would cost $186 million, with an option to buy another 28 at an unspecified cost. The federal government is expected to pay 80 percent of those costs. The purchase is part of a longstanding promise to improve service for the 72,000 people who take the commuter rail daily, the Globe reported.
If successful, Vossloh wanted to build two pilot locomotives in its home plant and assemble the rest in Kentucky, the Globe reported.
“We are very pleased with this news and express our great thanks to Sen. Crapo, Congressman Simpson, Gov. Otter, Mayor Beiter, all of the elected officials, labor unions and our U.S. suppliers who supported MotivePower and its employees in this process,” said Mark Warner, vice president and general manager of MotivePower, in a statement. “We look forward to working with MBTA and we will hopefully now be able to finalize a deal to build locomotives in Boise.”
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