THE California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has shortlisted Alstom and Siemens Mobility as qualified bidders to supply and maintain for 30 years six 350km/h trains for the under-construction high-speed project.

CHSRA says the shortlisting is “an important step” toward the release of the Request for Proposals (RFP) and procurement of the new trains. CHSRA issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the project in August 2023 and now anticipates issuing the RFP “in the coming months,” followed by the contract award later this year.

The chosen supplier must comply with Buy America local manufacturing requirements. The contract will include design, manufacture, storage prior to conditional acceptance, integration, testing and commissioning of the trains. The chosen supplier will also be responsible for supplying, testing, commissioning, maintaining and updating a driving simulator for the new fleet.

The winner of the eventual fleet contract will supply two prototype trains in 2028 to support static and dynamic testing as well as trial operations. CHSRA then expects to receive an additional four trains by the end of 2030 for revenue operations on the Merced - Bakersfield section of the California high-speed network.

In addition, the winning bidder will be responsible for:

  • the development and provision of design criteria to inform interfaces with facilities, track, systems, and stations
  • participating in the testing and commissioning of facilities, track, systems, and stations
  • the development and provision of information as required to support the certification and subsequent commissioning of the trains, and
  • operation and maintenance of train maintenance equipment installed in the heavy maintenance facility, light maintenance facility and train certification facility, which will be built by another third party.

The new high-speed trains and the related maintenance contract will be funded in part by the $US 3.1bn grant received by CHRSA from the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail (Fed-State National) Programme in December 2023.

As well as the new fleet, this funding will support design of the rolling stock maintenance facilities, design and construction of Fresno station, final design and early works, including right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation on the section from Merced to Bakersfield, and construction in the Central Valley. It is the single largest allocation that the project has received from the federal government since it was launched in 2009.

“These world-class vendors ensure that we are procuring the latest generation of high-speed trains,” says CHSRA CEO, Mr Brian Kelly. “With this recent federal grant, we are able to move forward with this major step on the project, purchasing trains capable of speeds of more than 350km/h to move passengers here in California in a way that transforms the passenger rail experience.”

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