French Subway Cars, Owed Under Contract, Are Way Overdue, After Third Deadline

A French company that received the bulk of a $1.1 billion contract to produce 660 new subway cars for New York has yet to deliver the first prototypes after missing its third and latest deadline of October 3.The delays are part of ongoing problems for the manufacturer, Alstom Inc., hired by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2002 to produce 400 of the 660 new R160 cars. And they are another setback in the authority’s plans to upgrade the subway cars on the system’s lettered lines.Alstom, which has also built trains for the Metro-North Railroad, has a checkered past with the MTA. The company reportedly won the MTA contract after hiring Alfonse D’Amato, the Republican senator turned lobbyist, to advocate for it with the authority.On Wednesday, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration fined the company $130,000 for 22 health and safety violations that took place at the company’s plant in Hornell, N.Y., where the new cars are being assembled. The company says that it has corrected some of the issues and plans to contest other violations, according to local press reports from Hornell, which is near Rochester.Transit officials in London have called for the firing of Alstom after five instances last week when emergency brakes failed on trains maintained by the company.Alstom was supposed to have delivered the first 10-car train to New York City for testing on July 29, but was granted an extension until September 16, which was later extended until October 3, according to MTA records.The company now is telling transit officials that it will deliver its prototype by the end of the year at the latest, or as soon as the first week in December.Kawasaki Rail Car, a Japanese company that is under contract to build the remaining 260 cars, delivered its prototype on schedule in two shipments, one of five cars on July 20 and a second of another five cars on August 11.Damaged car shells, a lack of parts, windows that were not watertight, and an assembly line the company had to create from scratch have all contributed to the delays, a spokesman for New York City Transit, Charles Seaton, said.Mr. Seaton said engineers from New York City Transit visited the plant in Hornell earlier this week to monitor the company’s progress and were happy with what they saw. He added that transit employees who worked in “quality assurance” were stationed at the plant at all times during production.“It’s not unusual that the test train would be late,” Mr. Seaton said. “These trains will be in test for about a year before the customers ever see them and this lost time could be made up.”The trains are expected to be in regular use by 2008. The authority has said it would prefer delays rather than receive an inferior product.A member of the state Assembly, Richard Brodsky, who is the chairman of the state’s committee on public authorities, said Alstom has a pattern of not meeting the standards set out in its contract. He cited a year-long delay in producing trains for Metro-North. This is Alstom’s first time producing subway cars.“I’ve always been concerned that what we are really dealing with is a company that is no longer fiscally and managerially capable,” Mr. Brodsky said. “The assurances we’ve gotten from the MTA are not good enough.”Alstom did not respond to repeated requests for comment.Mr. Brodsky has been critical of the contact awarded to Alstom. Earlier this year, legislators passed a bill sponsored by Mr. Brodsky to restrict the influence lobbyists have on contract procurements.Alstom has not been penalized financially for missing its deadlines. Such leniency is part of the transit authority’s intent to make sure Alstom, which was only one of three companies to bid for the $1.1 billion contract, stays in business. Transit officials have said competition will keep them from being dependent on any one company.“It’s in their interest that there be a number of interested bidders to compete in future contracts, and slamming Alstom is not going to make that happen,” the associate director of MTA’s Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, William Henderson, said.

French Subway Cars, Owed Under Contract, Are Way Overdue, After Third Deadline

French Subway Cars, Owed Under Contract, Are Way Overdue, After Third Deadline

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