dowlingm wrote:Wouldn't Siemens doing maintenance in MBTA territory be something of a potential trojan horse for them doing maintenance on some things they make that don't run on diesel...?
It's unavoidable in this case because these are IDOT-owned locos just here for a short-term lease. They still have to be maintained to Amtrak spec because they'll be going back to Chicago to run intercity service as soon as the new Midwest coaches allow the boosted loco numbers to start running the expanded Amtrak schedules they were originally ordered for. So for practical reasons Keolis isn't going to be allowed to poke under the hood, and will be prevented by the Siemens Service & Support intermediary from letting any deferred maintenance take hold from BET staffing shortages.
That said, Siemens really sees a pot of gold in selling S&S contracts with its rolling stock orders. They're going to be marketing the living crap out of that angle for subsequent orders. MARC and SEPTA are already signed-on for S&S with their commuter Charger and Sprinter orders. They'll be making that a key part of their sales pitch to VIA Rail for their Corridor replacement locos as VIA does not have any maintenance bases approaching the scope of Amtrak Beech Grove shops. And every forward-thinking commuter rail operator who adopts advanced analytics with their procurement planning to place higher emphasis on Total Cost of Ownership over a vehicle's lifetime vs. saving a few bucks on initial purchase or being self-controlling for self-control's sake (see: learning from past over-customization follies) is going to look long and hard at what those vendor support packages can do projected over 20 years. The more sign-ons Siemens gets for S&S on its product, the more other agencies are going to be swayed by the strength-in-numbers of the MARC's, SEPTA's, and others taking these packages and the less they'll be scared off by the risks of committing long-term to one vendor.
That's where Siemens wants this shortie IDOT lease to end up: the T having a good enough taster experience with the vehicles and the Siemens S&S over the several months to year of the IDOT trial and deciding to plunk down for a 20-unit base order of their own Charger fleet with full 20-year S&S contract in-tow. Base order replacing the unrebuildable GP40MC's, option for +10-20 more units tacked onto the contract if they would rather curtail most/all of the unfunded options on the F40PH-2C rebuild program to stack the deck on newer power instead. Then keep just the 10-15 funded-for-overhaul F40's to fill out the ends of the roster, with the ongoing CR Future study making a recommendation by 2019 on whether to electrify Providence, etc...in which case those dozen-plus residual F40's currently beginning repair would get bumped come 2025 by new-purchase electric locos or EMU's. The T's Charger ordering possibilities fit pretty well with the dilemmas they're tackling on fleet makeup going forward: base that at-minimum covers the Geeps they have to replace no matter what, options covering displacement of everything up to what fleet needs are TBD on an electrification decision (which the overhauled F40 residuals can cover as placeholder until they go/no-go the wire-up decision). Siemens S&S packages may
heavily tip the scales on what the T decides for its next-gen Fleet Plan if the 20-year Total Cost of Ownership looks really bullish at certain ordering quantities because of the cost/labor certainty around maintenance.
It ends up sneaky-smart (even if only by happenstance) for the IDOT rentals to be a teaser for S&S, not only for Siemens gaining a future order out of it but the T also getting in a more forward-thinking state of mind with the Fleet Plan and TCO economics.