Chinese Firm To Build Cars For Metro Subway, Rail Lines
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) – A Chinese company will help build new rail cars for the Metro Red and Purple Line, with some of the manufacturing expected to be done locally, Metro officials announced Thursday.
China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation has pledged to build 64 new rail cars to be used to replace existing ones and for a planned extension into Beverly Hills in 2023. Officials expect the first pilot vehicle by the spring of 2020, and the entire 64 subway cars by Sept. 2021.
The transit system may also exercise options to buy more than 200 additional subway cars.
Major components of the cars will be manufactured in a new facility to be purchased in the L.A. area, creating what officials say could be as many as 50 local jobs and generate up to $38 million in local wages and benefits.
The cars' exterior shells will be built in China. Final assembly is expected to be done in Springfield, Mass.
"We are a growing system that needs qualified, trained and prepared talent to keep us running," said Metro CEO Phillip Washington. "This new workforce program will create a path for those who want a job maintaining our new subway cars in the future."
According to Metro, the deal exceeds federal "Buy American" provisions that require 60 percent of component parts to be made in America.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
