Brightline’s L.A. (it’s actually not L.A. but whatever) to Las Vegas high speed rail project is slowly moving forward. Officials are eyeing a 2028 completion date, but a corporate rivalry over who gets to be the first to build the high speed trains themselves might screw things up.
Bloomberg reports on the mess going on behind the scenes. The problem it seems comes from federal funds received from the infrastructure bill.
Brightline West, backed by Fortress Investment Group, is partially funded with $3 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But with federal dollars comes the requirement to use US-made products under “Buy America” provisions.
Because of those provisions, the trains would have to be made in America by American companies. Except that no train manufacturer in the U.S. currently builds a train that’s capable of reaching the speeds Brightline requires. This has forced Brightline to look to Europe for a train manufacturer. Currently France’s Alstrom SA and Siemens from Germany have both filed to have exemptions from the infrastructure bills requirements so they can make the trains. This has created a mess of lawsuits, with each company looking to keep the other from getting the exemption to build the trains.
In July, Alstom filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Transportation, challenging the decision to award the contract for Brightline West’s train sets to Siemens. In the suit, filed in the US District Court in Washington, DC, Alstom argued that the new Amtrak Acela fleet it’s building at its existing Hornell, New York, facility should be considered a domestic option.
Siemens, in a response filed in late August, dismissed the lawsuit as “a collateral attack.” The company had previously committed to building a new US factory to support Brightline West and announced on Sept. 9 that the site will be in Horseheads, New York.
Both companies are investing heavily in U.S. based factories and workers. Alstrom has invested $80 million in its Hornell, New York facility where its been updating Amtrak’s Northeast corridor trains. Siemens seems to be a bit ahead as it’s scheduled to begin production of 200+ mph trains at its Horsehead, New York plant in 2026. Bloomberg pointed out that while construction of the Vegas to Southern California rail line is moving forward, the “Alstom lawsuit has rail advocates on edge, knowing how easily ambitious projects can be thrown off track.”
Meanwhile, politicians like Democratic U.S. Rep Seth Moulton from Massachusetts are calling for easing and exemptions of the made in the U.S. requirement. “Even though we all like ‘Buy America’, we can’t start there. We need to have some exceptions at the beginning and the exceptions are quite reasonable. It’s critically important that we actually get high-speed rail built here so that Americans can see what we’re missing,” he said to Bloomberg.