Caltrain Smooth Operator

September 1, 2011

The news being reported in the Mercury Times that Caltrain is taking the second highest lowest (thanks KH) bid instead of the lowest, thus paying $4.8 million more per year for the next five years for operations isn't necessarily crazy or bad business. There are often service-related reasons to pass over the low bid. But if it is going to look for new taxes or more service cuts, it will have to do a better PR job than it's done here to sell the decision.

What exactly "blew Caltrain's socks off?"

Posted in County Issues, High Speed Rail, SamTrans-Caltrain

One response to “Caltrain Smooth Operator”

Kevin Hecteman

September 2, 2011

I’ll have to see the deal to find out what inspired the sock knockoff, but the way the story’s written, it’s made out to be a terrible, terrible thing that Caltrain didn’t take the bargain-basement bid — without examining the history of any of the bidders. And many of the reader comments below it were variations on “OMG! CORRUPTION! KICKBACKS!” with no supporting evidence whatsoever.
As Robert Townsend explains in “Up the Organization”: “The bag of snakes will come disguised as an ever-loving blue-eyed bargain.”
Note the checkered history of the low bidder, Veolia. This company used to run Metrolink down south; they were fired in the wake of the collision at Chatsworth in 2008 in which the Veolia-employed engineer was found to have been texting at the throttle. (That contract went back to Amtrak.)
BTW, I think “second highest” above should be “second lowest.”

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