Mexico cancels HSR Order

[WatcherZero]

On Monday Mexico signed a $3.75bn (£2.3bn) contract with China Railway Construction Corp to build and supply trains for a 130 mile HSR link between Mexico and Queretaro. Today just 4 days later that deal has been cancelled over questions raised by the judiciary of close links between Government officials and China. The Chinese bid was the sole bid after Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom all asked for more time to prepare their bids but were refused. It would have been the first high speed rail line in South America. Looks like the competition will be rerun. Argentina and Brazil have both recently dropped their own plans for HSR.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29948331

Mexico has abruptly cancelled a $3.75bn (£2.3bn) contract awarded on Monday for a Chinese-led consortium to build a high-speed passenger rail link.


President Enrique Pena Nieto said he wanted to avoid "any doubts about the legitimacy and transparency" of the bidding process.


Mexico has forged closer links with China, while Mr Nieto is going to Beijing on a state visit next week.


The tender for the 130-mile rail link is being re-opened.


Mexico's communications and transport ministry said the new auction would start from mid-November and be open for about six months.


The contract was scrapped after lawmakers accused the government of favouring China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC)....

 

[gordonthemoron]

Mexico isn't in South America

 

[WatcherZero]

In British definition no its a sub continent, In latin speaking definition though central America is a sub-region of Ibero-America which we would collatedly call Central and South America.

 

[ac6000cw]

Mexico isn't in South America

I agree - it's in the North American continent. Latin America, yes, but not South America.

 

[WatcherZero]

Getting worse, the Mexican Presidents $7m home is registered to a subsidiary of the Mexican/Chinese bidders. He says his wife made a 30% downpayment on it and bought it before he became president but when he was Governor he gave them $600m worth of construction contracts and they put a plane at his disposal during his presidential election campaign.

 

[jopsuk]

Even with the re-tendering, there's still a decent chance it'll be the first dedicated High Speed line in North America...

 

[ac6000cw]

Even with the re-tendering, there's still a decent chance it'll be the first dedicated High Speed line in North America...

Given the rate that the California HSR project is progressing you could well be right.....

(I'll never understand why they didn't just build the tunnel between Bakersfield and LA first - at least then there could be some immediate improvement in services on the 'classic' routes while they built the rest of the HSR route).

 

[mrmartin]

Given the rate that the California HSR project is progressing you could well be right.....

(I'll never understand why they didn't just build the tunnel between Bakersfield and LA first - at least then there could be some immediate improvement in services on the 'classic' routes while they built the rest of the HSR route).

It's because the federal funds from the ARRA exclude commuter rail projects. If they built those sections first, it would mean that federal funds would not be available (as it would be classed as a commuter rail project)... utter madness, though

 

[ac6000cw]

It's because the federal funds from the ARRA exclude commuter rail projects. If they built those sections first, it would mean that federal funds would not be available (as it would be classed as a commuter rail project)... utter madness, though

I'd always thought about it as extending the Bay Area/Sacramento - Bakersfield 'corridor' trains south to LA (rather than extending Metrolink commuter services north to Bakersfield). It does nicely illustrate the problems of the 'silo' politics and project funding that seems endemic in the US.