Nothing short of a contracting fiasco, clearly Hyundai realizes China is a much more important customer than Boston, and clearly the T officials who signed the contract were naive, or worse. / / / BTW -Two guys, round-trip to Korea, $4000? Economy airfare alone is close to $3000, and I'm guesing they won't be flying coach...I want to check their receipts when they get back. 

The initial award to Hyunai was wrong. The T, already in financial and operational distress, was not in a position to take on the risk associated with a new provider who did not have a track record in the US. While H-R should be called on the carpet for their performance, the root of the problem once again lies with management at the T; they selected a player with no track record. I would also suggest the buck stops on the governor's desk. As the state's chief executive, he and his staff should have been more engaged in this critical decision. I'm sure some will say "low-bid wins" may have drove the decision, but there are provisions to select otherwise when fsctors such as performsnce history are considered. This is a failure of the executive branch of state government.

I am sorry, there was no mention if this was prepaid...how much money have the taxpayers paid thus far? No mention of that in the article. Hoping it is not $190mm.  Who would allow the delays to continue for two years?  Where is the interview with Deval Patrick on this subject? 

Was there a penalty clause in the contract?   IF NOT-----WHY NOT?

But ... but ... i thought that globalization would bring the best capital to the best markets to seek the best products ... whatever could have gone wrong??

It takes the MBTA chief a full year to find somebody to sell him an airplane ticket and a hotel room in Korea? Seems to me this is just another example of Deeval Patrick administration transportation ineptitude. Deeval just loves to trot around the state announcing (in between out-of-state national politicking of course) various pipedreams like a Fall River/New Bedford choochoo line. Finally we have reached the start of a longago announced timetable for transport honcho Davey and one of his cronies to hop over to Seoul to give the Koreans a good piece of his mind for their relaxed approach to manufacturing doubledecker rail cars. Deeval, of course, will keep an eye out for the choochoo cars while he pops in and out of Chicago headquarters of Barry the O and, maybe, Deeval's campaign base in case he runs for President in 2016 to set up a Chicago dynasty begun by Barry and Michele. Now, as for those doubledecker T cars, will Davey be assuring himself that the Koreans have enough diverse employees working in the train factory to comply with Massachusetts hiring laws? Maybe they can't, thus explaining the slow train to the Philadelphia assembly plant. Geolovely has a good point about the airfares for Davey and bud, but forgot the hotel rooms, food/booze bills and hosting charges. You can bet this trip will cost T rate payers $25,000 or more... for Davey to get a thrill giving a chewing out in a country largely given to face saving.

Enough with this BS--The FEDS should have or should fund Ford/GM to start making coaches and engines in this country. If we want to get something done right build it in the USA!