U.S. Department 

of Transportation 

Federal Railroad 

Administration 

NOV 0 6. 2015 

Bernard F. Reynolds 

Vice President- Procurement & Logistics 

National Railroad Passenger Corporation 

60 Massachusetts Ave NE 

Washington, DC 20002 

Administrator 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Washington, DC 20590 

Re: Request for Waiver of Buy America Requirement for Components ofNext Generation 

Trainsets 

Dear Mr. Reynolds: 

This letter is in response to your request dated November 3, 2014, that the Federal Railroad 

Administration (FRA) grant the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), a waiver 

from FRA's Buy America policy applicable to FRA's Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement 

Financing (RRJF) loan program, which follows the requirements of 49 U.S.C. § 24405(a). FRA's 

Buy America requirement for rolling stock, including HSR trainsets, requires domestic final 

assembly of the trainsets and that all the components be manufactured in the United States. 

FRA may waive the Buy America requirements ifFRA finds that: (A) applying the requirements 

would be inconsistent with the public interest; (B) the steel, iron, and goods manufactured in the 

United States are not produced in sufficient and reasonably available amounts or are not of a 

satisfactory quality; (C) rolling stock or power train equipment cannot be bought or delivered to 

the United States within a reasonable time; or (D) including domestic material will increase the 

cost of the overall project by more than 25 percent. 

Amtrak seeks a waiver for the following components of Tier III high-speed rail (HSR) trainsets: 

(1) aluminum car body shells (shell structure/frame-end, floor, roof, side); (2) Integrated 

cab/CEM structure; (3) vehicle paint; (4) brake control unit; (5) disc brake equipment; (6) tread 

brake equipment/tread cleaners; (7) brake valves, and (8) parking brake units (Components). For 

the reasons contained in this letter, FRA is granting Amtrak's request. 

Although FRA is granting Amtrak's request for these eight (8) Components, Amtrak's HSR 

supplier or its contractors will manufacture the other 126 HSR components, or 94 percent of all 

components, in the United States. Amtrak estimates the total cost of the Components under this 

waiver request is approximately 6.8 percent of the estimated $1 .6 billion cost for the 28 HSR 

trainsets and spare Components Amtrak will purchase. The cost by component per trainset is: 
COMPONENT ESTIMATED COST PER TRAINSET 

(1) Aluminum car body shells (shell $2,960,000 

structure/frame-end, roof, side) 

(2) Integrated cab/CEM structure $71,000 

(3) Vehicle paint $78,000 

( 4) Brake control unit; (5) disc brake $659,000 

equipment; (6) tread brake equipment/tread 

cleaners; (7) brake valves, and (8) parking 

brake units 

Total per Trainset $3,768,000 

In July 2014, Amtrak issued a Request for Proposal for its procurement of HSR trainsets. In 

October 2014, Amtrak received technical proposals from manufacturers in response to its 

Request for Proposals. After reviewing the proposals, Amtrak determined there were seven (7) 

Components of the trainsets' 134 components that each manufacturer indicated it could not 

source domestically. On November 3, 2014, Amtrak requested from the FRA a Buy America 

waiver for these seven (7) components and the HSR trainset paint (discussed in more detail 

below). 

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Coordinating with FRA, in February 2015 Amtrak engaged the Department of Commerce's 

National Institute of Standards and Technology's Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership 

(NIST-MEP) to scout for domestic manufacturers ofthe Components. In its April2015 report, 

NIST-MEP did not identify any suppliers making the exact Components. NIST-MEP did identify 

a total of 23 potential suppliers that either make products similar to the Components or claim to 

have the capability to manufacture the Components. FRA asked Amtrak to investigate whether 

any of the potential suppliers could manufacture the Components. After analyzing the NISTMEP report and Amtrak's report regarding follow-up discussions with the potential suppliers, 

FRA finds that none of the potential suppliers currently manufacture the Components. 

FRA supports Amtrak's required procurement timeline because the timeline addresses current 

capacity constraints on the Northeast Corridor and increasing demand for passenger rail. Further 

Amtrak's timeline meets FRA's goal of establishing Tier III HSR1 in the United States as soon as 

possible. Amtrak wants the HSR trainsets to be in revenue service by 2018. To meet this date, 

the first body shell deliveries must arrive approximately seventeen (17) months after notice to 

proceed, which is scheduled for February 2016. Final assembly and 126 of the 134 trainsets' 

components will be manufactured in the United States. FRA believes that operational Tier III 

HSR in the United States will increase the attractiveness for manufacturers to establish more 

HSR factories in the United States, strengthen the business case for a new domestic HSR trainset 

industry to develop, stimulate the domestic supply chain, and bring new high quality jobs to the 

United States. As a result, FRA concludes that none of the NIST-MEP identified suppliers could 

1 Tier Ill HSR trainsets are capable of traveling 220 miles per hour. 
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design, test, manufacture, and deliver the Components to meet Amtrak's FRA-supported 

timeline, which means they cannot deliver the Components within a reasonable time. 

Here is a summary ofFRA's analysis based on Amtrak's and NIST-MEP's outreach efforts: 

Component Number ofPotential FRA Findings 

Suppliers 

• None of the 12 potential suppliers currently 

manufacture aluminum car body shells for 

passenger I HSR trains. 

• After learning more about the requirements 

of the project, 6 of 12 potential suppliers 

expressed that they are not interested in the 

opportunity. 

• For the remaining 6 potential suppliers, 

FRA found at least one of the following 

applied to each manufacturer: 

0 inexperience working with aluminum; 

0 no experience building passenger/HSR 

(1) Car body Shell 12 aluminum car bodies; 

0 no relevant experience manufacturing 

aluminum car bodies; and/or 

0 have no equipment to manufacture larger 

extrusions necessary for HSR car body 

shell. 

• FRA estimates that it could take car body 

shell manufacturers a minimum of 18 to 24 

months to establish the required facilities 

and techniques. As a result, FRA finds the 

remaining 6 potential suppliers not capable 

of manufacturing the car body shell within a 

reasonable time. 

• None ofthe 5 potential suppliers currently 

manufacture CEM structures. 

• 3 of 5 potential suppliers were not interested 

in the opportunity after learning more about 

it. 

(2) Integrated cab I • For the remaining 2 potential suppliers, 

CEM structure 5 FRA found at least one of the following 

applied to each manufacturer: 

0 no relevant experience manufacturing 

CEM structures; and /or 

0 no experience building passenger/HSR 

CEM structures or similar relevant 

experience fabricating aluminum CEM 
4 

Component Number ofPotential FRA Findings 

Suppliers 

structures. 

• FRA estimates it could take CEM structure 

manufacturers a minimum of 18 to 24 

months to establish the required facilities 

and techniques. As a result, FRA finds the 

remaining 2 potential suppliers not capable 

of manufacturing the CEM structure shell 

within a reasonable time. 

• As applied to all3 potential suppliers: 

0 Paint must be applied where car body 

shells are manufactured to protect 

against corrosion and oxidation while in 

transit to the U.S.; 

0 The requirements, including foreign 

(3) Paint 3 environmental standards, for the 

trainsets' paint would involve at least 

one year to develop the paint, have it 

tested and qualified for this particular 

use, and then exported; 

• As a result, FRA finds that paint cannot be 

manufactured and delivered in a reasonable 

time. 

• For safety critical items such as the brake 

system, FRA believes the brake system and 

its components must be supplied by a 

single, service-proven supplier. 

• None of the 6 potential suppliers currently 

manufacture brake systems for HSR trains. 

Brake System- (4) • 5 of 6 potential suppliers have no 

Brake Control Unit; experience manufacturing rail brake 

(5) Disc Brake systems. 

Equipment; (6) FRA fmds that these 5 potential Tread Brake 6 0 

Equipment/Tread suppliers cannot supply the brake 

Cleaners; (7) Brake system. 

Valves, and (8) • 1 potential supplier is a major domestic 

Parking Brake Units brake system supplier that has experience 

manufacturing other types ofnon-HSR 

passenger rail brake systems. 

0 FRA estimates it would take at least two 

years to deliver a HSR brake system. 

0 FRA finds that the time to design, test, 

and manufacture a HSR brake system 
5 

Component Number of Potential FRA Findings 

Suppliers 

precludes this manufacturer from 

delivering the system in a reasonable 

time. 

On November 20, 2014, FRA published on its website public notice of Amtrak's waiver request. 

FRA received thirteen (13) online comments to this notice. Only one of the commenters 

identified a domestic source for any of the Components. The commenter asserted that the 

potential supplier identified in the table above is a major domestic brake system supplier and is 

capable of providing the brake systems. However, as described above, FRA has determined that 

brake systems are not domestically available for HSR trainsets nor can the one potential supplier 

deliver a brake system within a reasonable time. Of the thirteen (13) comments, ten (10) 

commenters were in favor of granting the waiver and three were against granting the waiver. 

Several of the ten (1 0) commenters in favor of granting the waiver cited safety as their reason. 

Many commenters also asserted that granting the waiver would be necessary to establish HSR in 

the United States and would lay a foundation for future domestic HSR manufacturing. 

The three commenters opposing the waiver argued that granting a waiver will lead to more 

waivers and that manufacturers could produce the HSR trainset components in the United States. 

Though domestic production of the HSR trainset components for which a waiver has been 

requested is theoretically possible, FRA believes significant safety, capacity, and technology 

transfer problems would result. Moreover, the delays to overcome these issues would negatively 

impact the schedules proposed by Amtrak. 

FRA believes a waiver is appropriate because the Components are not manufactured in the 

United States and because domestically-produced Components meeting the specific 

safety/service-proven, technical, design, and schedule needs of Amtrak cannot be delivered 

within a reasonable time. FRA bases its determination on the following: 

• All of Amtrak's bidders independently indicated in their responses to Amtrak's Request 

for Proposal that the Components, other than vehicle paint, could not be sourced 

domestically. As noted above, the paint may be able to be manufactured domestically but 

cannot be produced and exported in time to for use on the car shell components. 

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Hollings Manufacturing Extension 

Partnership (NIST-MEP) did not identify any domestic manufacturer currently producing 

the Components. 

• Amtrak conducted extensive outreach with manufacturers NIS T-MEP identified as 

potential future manufacturers for the non-available components. FRA agrees with 

Amtrak's assertion that even if any of the identified manufacturers would attempt to 
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produce the Components domestically, the Components could not be bought or produced 

in the United States within a reasonable time. 

Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 24405(a)(4), FRA is publishing notice of its decision to grant Amtrak's 

waiver request in the Federal Register to provide notice of such finding and an opportunity for 

public comment after which this waiver will become effective. This waiver applies only to the 

HSR trainset Components, including spares, for Amtrak's HSR trainset procurement as 

identified in its November 3, 2014 waiver request. Moreover, excluding assembly of prototype 

trainsets, which have been addressed in a separate waiver, the trainsets must be finally assembled 

in the United States, and all other components that are not described in this waiver must have 

been produced in the United States or be the subject of a future waiver. 

Questions about this letter can be directed to, John Johnson, Attorney-Advisor, at 

john.johnson@dot.gov or 202-493-0078. 

Sincerely, 

Sarah Feinberg 

Administrator