(The following story by Bill Roberts appeared on the Idaho Statesman website on July 16, 2010.)
BOISE, Idaho — A $114 million plan for MotivePower Inc. to build 20 locomotives for the Boston area’s commuter-rail system sets up the company to design, develop and produce the next generation of train engines.
When the contract is formally approved, it will help preserve jobs at the 550-employee production plant.
Whether it will create any new jobs will depend on how many other contracts and projects MotivePower has at the time, said Mark Warner, company vice president and general manager.
An initial announcement from the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority said the contract would create or sustain more than 1,200 union jobs. But that total includes a wide range of employees at companies beyond MotivePower, an MBTA spokesman said.
The contract is one of the largest MotivePower has ever received, Warner told the Idaho Statesman. The engines will be more fuel-efficient and with lower emissions and more reliable performance than in the past, he said.
Once the new locomotive is developed, Warner said, the company will market it to companies across North America.
MotivePower has 29 months from the signing of the contract to deliver the first engine, and the remainder must be delivered within a year after that, Warner said.
The deal seemed unlikely early last year. In 2008, MotivePower was vying to build 28 locomotives valued at as much as $186 million. MotivePower enlisted Idaho’s congressional delegation to help persuade the federal government, which is paying for much of the project, not to waive protectionist “Buy America” trade rules that prevented a European rival from bidding on the contract.
The government agreed, but the Massachusetts agency then decided to shelve the project.
Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for the transit agency, said the new decision to move ahead was driven by the need to update the aging fleet.