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WHAT REALLY HELPS U.S. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION MANUFACTURERS? Do government interventions help foster American manufacturing in public transportation? By and large, they help only marginally, say those who have been involved with the industry for decades. >BY CLIFF HENKE L LAST SPRING, THE FEDERAL RAILROAD Administration (FRA) released a $551 million Request for Proposals (RFP) to procure approximately 130 new bi-lev- el passenger railcars from an American builder. The cars would be used on Amtrak's intercity routes in California, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Mis- souri as well as potentially for a new line in Iowa. What is different about this RFP is that it requires that these cars be completely American-made, not simply with the minimum 60% domestic content as required for de- cades in the public transportation pro- gram. The funding for the intercity ve- hicles is being provided by the FRA's High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Program, through funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act enacted in 2009. The FRA hopes to announce the suc- cessful car builder some time before the end of 2012. The cars are scheduled to be delivered starting in 2015. If this announcement sounds like a familiar refrain from the past, it is. It is merely the most dramatic and recent example of federal intervention in the U.S. railcar and bus marketplaces. To be sure, state and local governments at- tempt to do similar things, though the prohibitions against "local options" have in theory been established in law for about as long as Buy America rules. Yet, do such provisions help U.S. manufacturing? Reviews by many from the supply side of the industry say not really. They have seen various attempts to strengthen Buy America and other 62 < mETRO mAGAZINE SEPTEMBER • OCTOBER 2012 policies introduced over the years, all designed to bolster them and other U.S. suppliers. Their comments sug- gest, that at best, these attempts have only modest impacts toward their goals. Some observers contend that a few of these policy changes may have actually reduced U.S. jobs. MORE JOBS, LOWER COSTS? The FRA's tender also employs sev- eral other features designed to bolster American companies and jobs — and many of these have also been tried in various ways. First, the RFP includes the new uniform vehicle standards that many federal and private sector offi cials alike believe will drive down lifecycle costs and allow more manu- facturers and suppliers to compete, metro-magazine.com