USA: Private sector project promoter Brightline West has named Siemens Mobility as preferred bidder to supply 355 km/h electric trainsets for its planned high speed line between Las Vegas and California.
The order, which is still to be finalised, would cover 10 American Pioneer 220 trainsets based on the manufacturer’s proven Velaro family, along with the provision of 30 years of maintenance at a depot in Sloan, Nevada.
The seven-car trainsets with ‘ultrawide’ carbodies would have a capacity of 434 to 450 passengers, depending on the final interior configuration.
An American supply chain
The announcement of Siemens Mobility as preferred bidder on May 1 came after an April 22 groundbreaking ceremony for the 351 km line which would link Las Vegas with Rancho Cucamonga east of Los Angeles.
Brightline West explained that it had undertaken a multi-year competitive procurement process involving global companies. Its selection criteria included price, manufacturing schedule, train performance, compliance with accessibility rules, capacity, passenger amenities and future interoperability with the separate California high speed rail project.
Brightline West said Siemens would establish a new facility to build the AP220, at the location to be announced when the contract is finalised. The trainsets would be built in accordance with all applicable Buy America requirements, and would ‘introduce state-of-the-art technology through an American supply chain, spurring the United States to establish a new industry rivalling countries that have had high speed rail for decades’.
Brightline CEO Michael Reininger believed that ‘the momentum we are building will culminate in new jobs and a new supply chain, that will establish the foundation for a high speed rail industry from coast to coast’.
Pivotal moment
Siemens Mobility previously supplied 200 km/h push-pull diesel trains for Brightline’s inter-city services in Florida.
Marc Buncher, CEO of Siemens Mobility North America, said ‘the high speed chapter of America’s rail story will build on Siemens’ 40 years of designing, building, testing, delivering and maintaining trains in the United States’.
With the launch of the state government-backed California High Speed Rail Authority’s first services not now expected until 2030-33, Buncher said the Brightline West trains would be ‘America’s first true high speed trains, which will feature some of the world’s most innovative high speed rail technology. When they enter service, it will be one of the most pivotal moments in the history of American rail.’
- Subscribers can read an in-depth article on the Brightline West project from the February 2024 issue of Railway Gazette International magazine.
