FRA waives Buy America rules on high speed train prototypes
The Federal Railroad Administration has approved a waiver on Buy America procurement rules covering the supply of up to four high speed trainsets for the US market.
The letter dated November 24 is a response to requests from both Amtrak and the California High Speed Rail Authority, who are each seeking to procure two pre-series trains for testing at speeds of at least 255 km/h on the Northeast Corridor and California’s nascent high speed line in the Central Valley....
For the procurement of prototypes, FRA does not believe that it is in the public interest for Buy America to be imposed.
‘FRA believes a waiver is appropriate because domestically-produced high speed trainsets meeting the specific technical, design, and schedule needs of Amtrak and CHSRA are not currently available in the USA’, the letter explains. ‘Moreover, domestically-produced high speed trainsets cannot be bought or produced in the USA within a reasonable time given the programme schedule associated with Amtrak's and CHSRA’s projects.’