This new contract means the U.S. is finally really getting high-speed rail

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This new contract means the U.S. is finally really getting high-speed rail

Bad Company: Honolulu Rail Car Supplier Ansaldo Breda May be Sold, Liquidated

Bad Company: Honolulu Rail Car Supplier Ansaldo Breda May be Sold, Liquidated
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Ansaldo Honolulu, responsible for $ 1.4 billion in constriction, future maintenance of all Honolulu Rail cars, and the driver-less signaling system which will control them is a joint venture of Ansaldo STS and Ansaldo Breda. Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s (HART) $ 5.36 billion rail system depends on Ansaldo Honolulu for existence–but the survival of Ansaldo’s Italian parent company, Finmeccanica, depends on getting rid of Ansaldo Breda.

That’s the word from Alessandro Pansa, who became Finmeccanica CEO last year after his predecessor was thrown into jail.  Testifying before the Italian Chamber of Deputies February 10, Pansa explained:

Ansaldo Breda is “likely to jeopardize the future of Finmeccanica.” … Finmeccanica “can not do the restructuring” of Ansaldo Breda because “it is not economically and financially viable.  All the sacrifices made … will be wasted on the performance of Ansaldo Breda.  The situation in which we find ourselves today does not allow you to ensure the survival, development and success to all companies in the group.”  You do not run “the risk of having to think of more amputations or crushing the group ‘if’ the company is sold off.  In the long run, the current economic and financial situations are not compatible with a listed company on the market, every day is accountable to shareholders and lenders.”

To prevent Breda from crushing Finmeccanica, Pansa is pursuing a sale of the very unprofitable rail car maker Ansaldo Breda by linking it with the profitable rail signal firm Ansaldo STS.  As Pansa explains, “We’re not dismantling the Italian industrial system.”

The Medi Telegraph, January 29, 2014, optimistically reports:

General Electric is accelerating purchase negotiations with Finmeccanica for the acquisition of Ansaldo STS and – surprisingly – Breda too. For the first time, the American firm has accepted the condition set out by the CEO Alessandro Pansa who has always insisted that both companies should be sold together. There seems to be no written offer yet, however General Electric confirmed its willingness to negotiate the purchase of the whole business, which is the jewel of STS railroads plus the Breda trains, the financially-critical side of Finmeccanica….

The news have not been confirmed nor denied at Piazza Montegrappa. There are still rumors that Hitachi Rail and Mitsubishi are in the race, but sources close to the deal insist that GE has a clear advantage….

This might sound like good news for Honolulu Rail, but Reuters, February 14, 2014 has more details which indicate the liquidation or splitting up of Ansaldo Breda remains part of the picture:

Daily la Repubblica reported on Friday that a plan, to be unveiled by the end of February, envisaged the spin-off of Ansaldo Breda’s healthy assets. These would be transferred to a new company called InMove Italia together with a minority stake in Ansaldo STS.

InMove Italia would then be sold to state holding Cassa Depositi e Prestiti while what was left of Ansaldo Breda would turn into a “bad company” to be gradually liquidated….

“It would be positive for Finmeccanica as it would get rid at least in part of AnsaldoBreda while for STS it is not good news because the sale of a minority stake pushes forward the prospect of a buyout offer for the whole company.”

After last year’s jailing of Giuseppe Orsi, Finmeccanica’s previous CEO, Honolulu Rail officials went through the motions of questioning Ansaldo’s ability to fulfill its rail contract.

A March 7, 2013 dog and pony show featuring a HART teleconference with Ansaldo STS officials is described in a Pacific Business News article:

Ansaldo STS is stronger than AnsaldoBreda, but there is no foreseeable risk with working with AnsaldoBreda, Ansaldo STS CFO Christian Andi said via teleconference from Italy.

Andi addressed HART board members’ concerns about the possibility of Finmeccanica selling its transportation companies to focus on defense and aerospace work.

Any new owner of Ansaldo would have to fulfill the contract….

That could be quite a trick if both Ansaldo STS and Ansaldo Breda are broken up and the remainder of Ansaldo Breda is liquidated.  But of course nobody from HART asked about that.  Instead HART CEO Daniel Grabauskas said “the companies we are working with have excellent reputations.”

Andrew Walden

Editor, HawaiiFreePress.com

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Schools evacuated after suspicious device found on rail car

Schools evacuated after suspicious device found on rail car
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posted on Nov, 21 2013 @ 12:09 PM

I would be interested to know what is considered to be a “suspicious package”. I see lots of weird things on rail cars every day. It probably is just a car destined to a different customer that was mistakenly left in the wrong track by the train crew servicing the industry. We make mistakes just like anyone else!

Edit: or it could be a drug shipment. It is common to have drug shipments attached to rail cars coming from Mexico. The border patrol may have missed one.

edit on 11/21/2013 by Montana because: (no reason given)

AboveTopSecret.com New Topics In Breaking Alternative News

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Blogs rail over bill defining media

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has lobbied hard for protection of ‘real reporters.’ | AP Photo

Bloggers across the political spectrum are up in arms over the proposed media shield bill a Senate committee passed on Thursday, blasting the measure’s definition of a journalist as a flawed and misguided effort targeting those who operate outside of traditional media.

“The entire approach is misguided. I think that journalism is an action, it’s not a status, it’s not a membership. And I think they’re treating it like a membership and they’re doing it in a way that is intended to be basically rent-seeking for the larger players in the field,” Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey told POLITICO. “It’s just a bad idea.”

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The Senate Judiciary committee on Thursday approved legislation that would protect reporters, with exceptions, from being forced to disclose confidential sources. The bill was passed with an amendment that defined a “covered journalist” as an “employee, independent contractor or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information.” Or, as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said, “real reporters,” and not just anyone with a website.

“I can’t support it if everyone who has a blog has a special privilege … or if Edward Snowden were to sit down and write this stuff, he would have a privilege. I’m not going to go there,” she said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The “journalist” would also have to have been employed for a one year period within the last 20 years, or for a three-month period within the last five years. Student journalists would also be covered, as well as those “whom a federal judge has decided should be able to avail him or herself of the protections of the privilege, consistent with the interests of justice and the protection of lawful and legitimate newsgathering activities.”

But the shield law would not cover any person or entity whose principle purpose “is to publish primary source documents” without authorization — sites like WikiLeaks, for example. There would also be an exception “to prevent terrorist activity or harm to the national security,” according to the bill. The measure, sent to the floor with a 13-5 vote, came to the fore after the news broke the Dept. of Justice had monitored and tracked journalists from The Associated Press and Fox News.

The Drudge Report’s Matt Drudge tweeted on Friday about the proposed law, writing, “Gov’t declaring who qualifies for freedom of press in digital age is ridiculous! It belongs to anyone for any reason. No amendment necessary.”

He added that Feinstein’s comments yesterday on who constitutes a reporter “were disgusting. 17-year old ‘blogger’ is as important as Wolf Blitzer. Fascist!”

“Federal judge once ruled Drudge ‘is not a reporter, a journalist, or a newsgatherer.’ Millions of readers a day come for cooking recipes??!” he tweeted.

Morrissey, who on Friday wrote a blog post on the issue, said he’s fairly confident he and other writers for the conservative blog Hot Air would be covered by the proposed federal media shield law, as the site is owned by Salem Communications. But that doesn’t mean he thinks it’s good idea, he said.

“I think that any definition of a reporter in a media organization would probably include us or Huffington Post, owned by AOL, so it’s kind of the same thing, one from each side of the aisle and relatively speaking in the same sort of organizational position,” he said. “Let me put it this way: I’m confident that we would be covered as anybody else would be, with the caveats I mentioned – which is this ambiguous idea of national security being an exception to this. This loophole is huge.”

The overall intent of the definition is to “narrow the reach of whistleblowers,” Morrissey said, and that’s going to impact those on both sides of the aisle.

“If you’re a source that has information about government malfeasance and this shield law only protects certain people from turning over their sources, you know, who are you going to go to? You’re not necessarily going to go to Erick Erickson over at RedState or Markos Moulitsas at Daily Kos,” he said. “You’re going to go to somebody who’s going to be covered by the shield law, so it’s basically a licensing law.”

POLITICO – Congress

Blogs rail over bill defining media

Spain: Rail chiefs quizzed over safety after derailment

• Spain’s rail chief testify before lawmakers on railroad safety


• 38 people remain in hospital two weeks after a train derailed in northwestern Spain


• Investigations continue into the cause of the deadly crash near Santiago de Compostela

Madrid (CNN) — Spanish rail chiefs are testifying on safety before lawmakers Thursday, two weeks after 70 people died and scores were injured in a horrific derailment in northwestern Spain.

Gonzalo Ferre Molto, president of state-owned rail infrastructure company Adif, and Julio Gomez-Pomar, president of state railroad company Renfe, are expected to detail what steps are being taken to improve future rail safety.

As of Thursday, 38 people remain in the hospital, six of them — all adults — in critical condition. No nationalities were given for those still hospitalized.

The July 24 derailment near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela shocked the nation.

Investigations into the cause of the accident continue.

Authorities have charged the train’s driver, Francisco Jose Garzon, with 79 counts of homicide by professional recklessness and an undetermined number of counts of causing injury by professional recklessness.

Court officials have said the train was traveling at 153 kph (95 mph) when it derailed, nearly twice the speed limit on the curve where the accident happened.

Minutes before the derailment, Garzon received a call on his work phone, apparently receiving instructions on the way to Ferrol from a Renfe staff member, a court in Galicia said last month.

The train was nearing the end of a six-hour trip between Madrid and Ferrol at the time of the accident.

CNN’s Laura Perez Maestro reported from Madrid and Laura Smith-Spark wrote in London.

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Spain: Rail chiefs quizzed over safety after derailment