Green Line Cars

The Times has written extensively about the Green Line, the rail route that will one day carry millions of passengers to and from Los Angeles International Airport. As one of 11 county transportation commissioners charged with creating our rail system, I have led the march to build the Green Line.

However, the most recent chapter in my fight to build the Green Line has not been correctly reported, spawning editorials and outcry that have taken me to task. The commissioners voted two weeks ago to hire the Sumitomo Corp. of Japan to construct our Green Line cars. You have not told your readers that I was a dissenter in that debate, or that I supported awarding the contract to the Morrison-Knudsen Corp., headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

It was not easy to endorse Morrison-Knudsen in the face of vehement staff and expert opinions urging that, on the basis of technical superiority, Sumitomo was the only acceptable choice. But, Morrison-Knudsen’s bid offered us the following: greater local, domestic and minority participation in the project, a lower price and a bond to guarantee timely and accurate performance. More important, the selection of Morrison-Knudsen would have permitted us to reap the immediate benefit of a much-needed boost to the American economy and the permanent benefit of an American competitor’s entry into the now-closed world of advanced rail technology.

I think the Transportation Commission missed an opportunity, and I told them this at the time of the vote. I will never be a party to Japan-bashing--the solutions to our current economic difficulties lie within ourselves, in our ability to compete successfully on the world stage. What is so troubling is that, in the case of the Green Line car contract, I believed an American company had done just that.

MAYOR TOM BRADLEY

Los Angeles