Miami-Dade Transit 301-436
Miami-Dade Transit 301-436 are metro (subway) cars being built by Hitachi Rail Italy (formerly AnsaldoBreda). The 136 cars will replace the existing cars that were built by Budd in the 1980s. The County initially planned to overhaul the Budd cars. A request for proposals (RFP 439) was issued in 2006. But after a thorough review, it was decided in 2008 that they would purchase brand new cars instead.[1]
The County issued RFP 654 on March 31, 2009. Alstom, AnsaldoBreda, and CAF submitted proposals in September of that year. It was recommended that the contract be awarded to AnsaldoBreda in early 2011. AnsaldoBreda had agreed to assemble the cars locally. CAF protested the contract award and claimed that this gave them an unfair advantage. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) ruled in November 2011 that the County had violated federal rules. The proposals were reviewed again, without assigning a value to local assembly. In November 2012, AnsaldoBreda was again awarded the contract to manufacture the cars.[1][2]
Delivery of six pilot cars was initially scheduled to begin in the second and third quarter of 2015. Following acceptance of the pilot, Miami-Dade Transit will take delivery of six cars per month through to the first quarter of 2018. The manufacturing facility in Medley, Florida was officially opened on March 15, 2016. A half-car, full-scale mock-up was displayed.[3] The first cars were now scheduled to be complete towards the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017. The first pair of cars was delivered on March 28, 2017.[4]