The Bay Area Rapid Transit district has become the nation's first transit agency to approve a "Buy America" policy, BART said.
The new Buy America Bid Preference policy, adopted unanimously by the BART board Thursday, "gives preferences to rail car manufacturers who create jobs in the U.S.A.," according to a BART news release Friday.
BART is preparing to award $3 billion in contracts for its new fleet of train cars, which the agency calls the "Fleet of the Future."
“The Buy America policy mirrors the economic goals of federal lawmakers,” BART Board President Bob Franklin said in a statement. “Adopting this policy on a regional level demonstrates BART’s leadership in the rail industry. It will also transfer rail car technology to the U.S.”
The new policy, which takes effect Jan. 1, "scores bids for federally funded procurements by using a formula that considers the domestic content level of a product," BART said.
