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You will have to adjust on how you want to characterize their chances.

* We believe you chances of getting the award from Amtrak are not great. Alstom has a long history with Amtrak and they have a familiarity and a comfort level with Alstom that can't be discounted.

* That said, Amtrak will look at whose bid will provide rail cars that can be delivered faster, safer and cheaper. In addition, being able to source as much content as possible from the U.S. and create as many U.S. jobs as possible is important.

* The bigger issue before CAF is the fact that Amtrak is relying on a RRIF (Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing) loan from the Department of Transportation to finance the purchase of the trains. As the RRIF program is funded out of the Transportation Reauthorization Bill and that bill has been on a short-term extension, the DOT is not extending further RRIF loans right now. The Transportation Bill is not expected to be extended long-term until next year, so Amtrak has to find another financing mechanism or option from DOT.

* While we can't directly talk to Amtrak about your bid during the RFP process, we can provide you advice if you get any questions back from Amtrak and we can continue to provide you with valuable intelligence throughout the process.
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You can decide if you want to go here, but I would be interested to know what their situation with labor is? I assume their Elmira plant is unionized? Is Alstom's? I wonder if there is something we can do there.

In addition, we shouldn't set up any meeting or anything like that, but Stephen Gardner will be at that HSR conference in Spain next week. CAF will be there - I see they are on a panel. Think about if you want to mention, because obviously they can't lobby Stephen on this but they may want to be aware.


Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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