LOS ANGELES : Holden Assails Deal to Buy Rail Cars From Japanese
- Share via
Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden on Tuesday criticized a decision by county transit officials to award a car-building contract to a Japanese-owned company, calling it the result of “collusion . . . designed to support the Sumitomo Corp.”
“I’m really shocked and angry that the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission wants to go ahead and award a 15-car contract to Sumitomo,” said Holden, considered a potential candidate to succeed Tom Bradley as mayor. “It was a contrived effort to contradict the will of the people.”
Sumitomo won a 41-car order in December, but lost it a month later after a public uproar over the alleged export of jobs during a recession. LACTC awarded the 15-car order so it could provide service on the Norwalk-to-El Segundo Green Line while searching for companies to bid on an 85-car order that can generate more local jobs.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
