NGEC Procurement Update

Status Update – Multi-state Car Procurement (Caltrans - Lead State) - as of 3-27-18:

• The design review meeting took place in Chicago on March 20 & 21. The discussion topics included end doors for IDOT, wheelchair lift, diagnostics, seats and safety appliances. The meetings were productive, and a lot of action items were closed. We also had some preliminary discussions on café cars design. These concepts will be reviewed and discussed with Public Health team, FDA as well as ADA representatives from California and Mid-west states.
• Siemens visited Chicago Maintenance Facility on March 19. They took a facility tour, met with IDOT and Amtrak mechanical and operational staff to learn about the standard practices and tooling requirements in Illinois. The meeting was productive, and Siemens was able to see legacy equipment.
• Caltrans and IDOT are meeting with ADA representatives from California and Illinois to go over the accessible toilet room design as well as café car design concepts. Their feedback will be communicated to SCOA/Siemens.
• The Mock up review is scheduled in the week of April 9 in Florida. We will be using Brightline’s cars to review some of the components in the cars, such as toilet rooms, gangway, HVAC, communication system, etc.
• Caltrans has been developing and submitting Document Change Requests (DCR) to NGEC. Caltrans has submitted 15 DCRs several weeks ago and awaiting approval from NGEC. 12 out of those 15 items were HVAC related and three are related to Seat tracks, Door Operators, and Air Brake Control Valve. All DCRs have been sent to the appropriate working group(s) and discussion and votes are pending. Timely approval of DCRs are critical for Caltrans and IDOT to move forward with this procurement.

- The Charger - Diesel-Electric Locomotive Update as of 3-27-18:

a. Of the 33 units IDOT locomotive order, all 33 have been conditionally and finally accepted with Siemens.
b. 238.111a testing still needs to be completed on two Michigan corridors pending resolution of equipment and testing issues. The locomotives for the MI corridors are still being held in Pueblo until this testing is completed.
c. Twenty-Three Chargers are currently in the Midwest.
d. The locomotives stored at TTCI will ship to Chicago as soon as storage space becomes available. Storage space in Chicago is being freed-up with the re-deployment of P42 locomotives by Amtrak.
e. Amtrak has started to re-deploy their P42 fleet from the Midwest to other locations.
i. A recurring bi-weekly warranty meeting is being held by Siemens and includes all JPE’s, Amtrak, Siemens, MARC and Brightline

- Dual Mode Locomotive Procurement:

Metro-North has begun the process for procuring Dual Mode Locomotives and has advertised a pre-bid meeting for potential builders to attend on 3-28-18. Metro-North is in discussions on potential DCRS to be submitted as the process moves forward. He also noted that on the most recent SAIPRC equipment capital working group call, Max Johnson, Amtrak, noted Amtrak’s intent to procure Dual Mode locomotives as well, and the possibility of working through this procurement. Ray added that there will be a meeting later this week to discuss Amtrak and others who may wish to be a part of the procurement.

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