PERSPECTIVE ON METRO RAIL : American Bidder Is Ready to Roll : Morrison Knudsen can build the cars on time, with local content, at a new low cost. Delaying the contract is wasteful.

Last Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission staff was instructed by its chairman to report by mid-April on the results of a staff survey of private-sector suppliers of cars for the Metro Rail Green Line. The survey asks two questions:

If the LACTC were to request proposals for 100 cars within 30 days, could the cars be delivered for service by November, 1994, or even earlier?

What does the LACTC have to include in its bid request in order to obtain this delivery date, at the best price, within budget and with maximum local, domestic and minority-business content?

We--Morrison Knudsen Corp.--have the answer: We are ready now. If the contract is awarded soon, we’ll meet the original November, 1994, deadline for on-line operation. We will meet or exceed every technical aspect of the Green Line contract. In doing so, we’ll provide unprecedented levels of work for three key labor markets: disadvantaged businesses, the Los Angeles and California work force, and American workers in general. Finally, we will meet Green Line capacity requirements at a price substantially below that previously agreed upon in the subsequently aborted procurement process.

That process already has been under way for 15 months. Under the current LACTC proposal to lease cars temporarily from St. Louis, completion will take six to nine months more, for a total of two years. A procurement process for a comparable rail system in Illinois took six months. Of the dozens of procurement processes in which Morrison Knudsen has recently participated, this has been by far the most inefficient.

The adage “time is money” is especially true for large capital-intensive projects like the Green Line. Costs tend to go up over time and further delays will needlessly increase the cost of a project that could be under way today.

Furthermore, if the contract is not awarded soon, Los Angeles will be in the unenviable and wasteful position of having invested 80% of the total project cost in track and infrastructure without having produced any of the corresponding transit cars.

The solution? Morrison Knudsen will build a proven vehicle, compatible with the Blue Line, which will meet the original deadline of November, 1994, for operation.

From the technical requirements for weight per axle and acceleration to those specifications ensuring the comfort of passengers, like air conditioning, noise abatement and interior room, our proposal meets or surpasses the Green Line standards. It does so with proven technology. We offer an Los Angeles-specific version of a currently operational vehicle, thereby combining the benefits of proven reliability with the fit of a custom-made vehicle.

Of considerable importance to the people and government of Los Angeles is the huge economic benefit of infrastructure investment. We at Morrison Knudsen not only understand this flywheel benefit to the community, we also wholeheartedly agree that it should happen now. As such, we will set the standard in Los Angeles by unilaterally raising the job content requirements in three key areas.

Disadvantaged minority businesses will be guaranteed 25%, California/Los Angeles content will be a minimum of 40%, and American work will be fully 70% of the Green Line project. A review of other projects will show this 25-40-70 formula to be one of the highest, if not the highest, offered anywhere in the nation. It far surpasses any other proposal on the table for the Green Line.

As if timely action, quality engineering and unprecedented job content were not enough, Morrison Knudsen will accomplish this at a cost substantially below what was previously accepted for the Green Line system.

Across the board, Morrison Knudsen stands ready to make the Green Line happen. With 77 years of experience in rail and more than two decades spent in the manufacture of locomotives and transportation systems, Morrison Knudsen is prepared and willing to move--now.