Rail-car delays crimp Metrolink plans.

No new cars are here for new stations, line

The Southern California Regional Rail Authority's plans to open new Metrolink stations and lines are being derailed by a contractor's failure to deliver rail cars.

The SCRRA is scheduled to open three new Metrolink stations and one new line this year. But the rail cars that were supposed to carry the increased passenger load haven't been delivered as promised by Boise, Idaho-based Morrison Knudsen Corp., and the SCRRA is in a quandary about how to meet the growing demand for seats on commuter trains.

"There is a long history with this contract that frankly isn't favorable to the state of California or to Morrison Knudsen," admitted Larry Salci, the new president of MK Transit Group, which is MK's Chicago-based transportation division.

MK's 3-year-old, $142 million contract is with the California Transportation Department for 88 inner-city and commuter rail cars - 24 of which were to go to Metrolink. The state so far has paid MK $79 million from bond sales and received nothing.

The first cars were originally supposed to arrive in California in July of 1993 - which Salci and a CalTrans spokesman now concede was an "overly ambitious" schedule. The state has extended the contract several times, with the latest schedule calling for delivery of 22 cars by the end of last month.

Instead, only two completed inner-city cars have made their way to MK's facility in Pittsburg, Calif., but they have not yet passed final safety inspections and are therefore as yet unusable.

Salci said inner-city train cars for California - which will be used by Amtrak on routes linking urban centers - are in production and rolling off assembly lines in New York right now. But production of the commuter cars - passenger cars used on commuter rail lines linking urban area with suburbs - has yet to begin because MK's commuter-rail-car shell subcontractor in Brazil has gone broke, due to efforts there to privatize formerly government-run companies, Salci said.

"Because of the unexpected growth of Metrolink (after the Northridge earthquake), if we don't get those cars in a timely fashion, we will (have) a capacity problem," said SCRRA spokesman Peter Hidalgo.

Metrolink is opening a station in San Clemente in March, at the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport in April, and in the Norwalk area by the end of the year. (The Norwalk station will allow for transfers between Metrolink and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's new Green Line service along the 105 Freeway in the South Bay.)

Also this fall, Metrolink is scheduled to open a new line between Riverside and Irvine.

"We are experiencing a definite need for more cars. We are concerned," said Hidalgo. "The stations will open regardless, and people will complain that the cars are too crowded. ... Once a station opens, we experience (passenger count) growth rates of up to 1 percent per day."

Options weighed

The opening of the new route is less certain than the new stations to proceed on schedule. Hidalgo said the SCRRA is currently analyzing whether it can open a new line without the MK cars, and if so, how.

Metrolink would like to cancel the commuter car portion of MK's contract and ask Bombardier Corp., which built Metrolink's existing fleet, to supply California with more cars, Hidalgo said.

CalTrans spokesman Jim Drago said that idea is "certainly something that would be looked at."

"We're examining all our options," said Drago. "Our concern is to enforce the provisions of the contract. ... What can you do if there is a breach of contract? The termination clauses have to be looked at."

Salci said CalTrans could cancel the commuter car portion of the MK contract for "convenience" but would have to pay MK's costs so far.

Drago and Salci said the delays on the commuter cars are partly the fault of Metrolink and a Bay Area commuter transit service, which changed their minds in 1993 and ordered triple-deck cars instead of dual-level cars. That change meant MK had to switch from a shell subcontractor in Portugal to one in Brazil.

MK recently brought its designs back from Brazil and is looking for a new subcontractor, said Salci. MK hopes to produce some Metrolink cars by late 1995, he added.

Leasing cars mulled

Another possibility for the SCRRA to meet its need for rail cars may be leasing cars from transit authorities in Ontario and/or the Bay Area until the MK cars arrive, Hidalgo said.

MK won the CalTrans contract by submitting the lowest bid, said Hidalgo. According to stories published earlier this month (when MK announced larger than expected losses for 1994), MK underbid for rail car contracts in several states.

Salci said the company bid low to win a San Francisco contract to get its Pittsburg plant up and running, in the hope of getting more rail car work in California.

He admitted the investment in California turned out to be a bad financial decision and hinted that once the current contracts are complete, the Pittsburg plant will likely close.

A Morrison Knudsen-led partnership also was the low bidder on an MTA contract for light rail cars, but the company lost out on that contract (as did Bombardier) to Siemens Duewag Corp., based on a point grading system.

Siemens, which is planning to build rail car shells at a new factory in Carson, also has had some problems falling behind schedule, but only by a few months at this point.

Salci said MK would not bid on a light rail car contract today.

Assemblyman Richard Katz, D-Sylmar, is blaming Gov. Pete Wilson, not only for approving the MK contract in the first place, but for advocating increasing the original contract by 25 cars and $54.5 million in November of 1993. At that time, the schedule for initial delivery also was delayed until August of 1994. The delay and expansion of the contract were approved by CalTrans.

Back in September of 1993, Katz tried unsuccessfully to hold up the contract extension and asked the Auditor General to investigate the MK contract.

"I'm afraid you (Wilson) have put us in the position of having put so much money into the contract that we can't extract ourselves now without losing tens of millions of dollars," Katz wrote to the governor. "I don't think anyone who takes a serious look at this weak contract, the blown schedule and the massive expenditure with no product could reach any other conclusion - You made a major mistake.

"I think it's time you let me, the rest of the Legislature, and most important, the public know how you intend to correct it."

Drago said the decision to expand the contract in 1993 was "the best business judgment" government officials could make at the time. Wilson's office referred inquiries to Drago.

RELATED ARTICLE: Squabble continues over Highland Ave. station contract

Two local contractors last week continued to wage a closely fought battle over a $70 million contract to build a Metro Rail station at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.

Kajima/Ray Wilson, a Pasadena joint venture firm, is protesting a Metropolitan Transportation Authority staff decision in January to award the contract to Tutor-Saliba/Perini of Sylmar.

Kajima/Ray Wilson was the low bidder, but MTA staff ruled that the company narrowly missed reaching the MTA's goal for participation of minority- and women-owned firms as subcontractors.

Last year, Tutor was the low bidder for the same contract, but the MTA threw out the bids when it upheld a protest by Kajima/Ray Wilson, which noted that Tutor listed a subcontractor as a "disadvantaged business enterprise" that was not minority-owned. Tutor sued the MTA, and the case has yet to be resolved.

The two companies remain less than $1 million apart in their bids, and the difference on the use of minority-owned firms is less than 1 percent.

Kajima's attorney, Bernard Kamine, argued last week that both companies listed the same minority-owned subcontractor - Manuel Tejeda Trucking Co. - in their bids, but because Kajima listed Tejeda as a "broker," Kajima was awarded far less credit, even though Tejeda will do the same work on the contract regardless of which contractor wins out.

"Isn't that a little silly?" L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan asked MTA staff at a meeting of the MTA's Construction Committee. "I think somebody ought to get some common sense."

The committee approved the staff report subject to resolution of Kajima's protest.

In other Hollywood Metro Rail news, the MTA again halted subway tunneling along Hollywood Boulevard on Feb. 8 for about a week because the street sank more than 1.5 inches, east of Cherokee Street.

MTA staff said the contractor would do additional chemical grouting to shore-up the soil and resume tunneling later this week.

Bob Mooney, spokesman for Hollywood Damage Control and Recovery Inc., said retailers along the affected areas of Hollywood Boulevard had difficulty closing their doors last week because their businesses are separating from the street.

Several businesses, Mooney said, had to cover cracks in their doorways with cardboard and other types of ramps to prevent accidents from occurring.