Not really a fast train in another BRIC country
In my post at the end of last year I was very skeptical about the bullet train engineering and auctioning process. So where are we now? The April 29 date for receiving the documentation of bidders war postponed to the end of July, when it was cancelled.
The current situation is now that the bidding is to be divided into two parts: technology and operator in the first part and construction in the second part.
The two phases of bidding are to start in September or October (whatever that means) but the schedule is to remain unchanged with construction beginning in 2013 and the whole project not costing more than 20bn USD. At the rate the USD is falling, I may even believe the latter part... but 2013 is just around the corner - especially if the bidding gets delayed for another year.
But after that it can get accelerated - biddings for the World Cup can already be kept in partial secrecy so that the evil press and public doesn't snoop around too much. Why not expand to the bullet train?
BTW: No bids have been received yet - must be one hell of an interesting project in the Country of the Future.
You may want to check this one too, although I disagree about the aspect that flying is the better idea...
ReplyDeletehttp://businessinbrazilblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/brazils-bullet-train.html