This is speculation, but I think think it's more substantial than /u/ShriekingMuppet to just assume it's all straight up money. But it was a gambit that went very wrong.

Let me put it like this and bare with me - you can see a much bigger example if you watch from 8:56 to 10:53 of this Youtube documentary about the failed Superconducting Super Collider project. A common tactic to please various constituents is to give everyone a piece of the pie, no matter how small.

When it came to the failed Superconducting Super Collider project, it was spreading out contracts across 47 states. But this type of politics applies to smaller scale projects too. To appease Western MA that a project doesn't only "benefits" Boston, they tied a new factory with the project.

It also notable that unlike the discussion has implied so far. If you look at links like this(Page 8), CNR had a record as good as Bombardier (Which anyone who follows knows they aren't perfect, but nobody questions them as a legit manufacturer). So any person who assess by what the data says, then it's not just choosing the less "iffy", it was choosing a company who has done a good as a job as Bombardier... and promptly got bought out by the company rated so poorly that they were explicitly rejected.

So it was an attempt to make it into a "win-win". Western MA gets jobs. Boston gets new trains. CNR gets a foothold in the NA market. MA in general gets Bombardier-level trains at bargain prices. And it all went to shit.

Obligatory link explaining the timeline of how we got here.

I have to note that the line "even the ones that already had factories in the USA" sounds off to me. I believe Manufacturers that have already factories in the US are even more disinclined to build a factory in MA, not less disinclined. Any bidder already in the US means the cost of another factory that is ultimately set to be a one-off barring a company that happens to be looking to move. Meanwhile anyone without a factory in the US needs to build one somewhere anyways - including CNR.

This newest development rubs me the wrong way. Some may just dismiss it as my "politics" (though I guess few would here), but given how the delivered trains have questions how long it will stay "new" and even if we'll even get more deliveries at all, concerns how "American" the trains are pretty low in my concerns list. Particularly getting all worked up if the trains are "American" ups the likelihood that CRRC really have checked-out and gave up on even fulfilling existing contracts in any form.

The one thing I want to note is how much room left if failure is the outcome.

Failure back in 2015 means the MBTA has declined was no longer resilient enough to stay up after the most snowiest winter in recorded history all packed into roughly a month.

By 2022, failure means the MBTA has declined to the point they can only provide weekend level headways during rush hour at best with trains moving at half the speed on average and increasing questions of safety including a person dying.

If the new MBTA general manage fails, it means the MBTA will decline even deeper in into hole. We're already at weekend headways, slow zones everywhere, and even one person dead. So what's the next level? At some point, the only thing worse that can happen - well I'm not even gonna say it out loud. But if things does get worse, there is a bottom that we can hit.

I hope this new GM succeed. Hope does not mean I expect he will. But we're approaching the point imagining what state the MBTA would be if he fails is not something we like to imagine.

If it is more the any "one person" that can help, then let him fall on the sword in the attempt.

I don't mean I actually want him to fail, but even seeing someone even trying would be nice. Like for example, in Milton, their stairs to their train station being removed with no timeline to replacement implying years to even decades, the alleged issue is repairing the stairs triggers ADA compliance so the MBTA needs funding and thus a legislature issue. Milton seem to have tried to pull every string they have between political avenues and even lawsuits. But the MBTA barely responds back to Milton, much less than actually act like their hands are actually tied rather than acting like one tying hands by stonewalling to even give a response.

If the issue is the legislature, then it would be nice to see the MBTA actually act like that implying that it wants to improve but can't rather than the above which implies they just have no interest. If we look back to just Poftak, then just remembering during the year before the pandemic, he even used to say that the MBTA doesn't need more money as more money don't speed up their "fixes".

I grew up here though this shouldn't matter. You don't need a lifetime of living here to recognize "character of the neighborhood".

If your statement is "I don't want Boston to become Manhattan", I think most wouldn't disagree with that. The downvotes reflects not a desire to turn Boston into Manhattan, but to try to stop Boston from becoming San Francisco***.

I'm seeing more and more people in my life moving out to stupidly far locations out of Boston. I bet you would just say they are just "reaching that phase of life", but that ignores my friend's words that a lot would pick something closer - if they can afford it. The only people in my life who been avoiding that so far are people-living-with-their-parents or techies - and even some of the techies moving out

What good is "preserving the neighborhood" if the people you know and care about can't afford to stay in the neighborhood?

And that's the thing with your argument. Regardless of what your claims, the results mean you're advocating to become SF. A city where the 6-figure income techies only really afford apartments reminiscent to your college years and a constantly-under-siege class of essential workers essentially winning the lottery through one of the affordable housing programs.

***It is notable that latest news that Boston has surpassed SF in rent prices. But what the news haven't cover as much is SF's rent prices has been decreasing lately rather than we finally catch up.

Speculation, but the fact Frank's voice is used to announced the next train to Union Square tells me that it was probably not about skimping out at the recording booth. Someone bought him there there and he voiced his lines.

What it does makes me suspect is various decision makers are not in sync. Some took the effort to contact Frank for his voice, got it recorded, and used it for various places. But other decision makers are not aware or don't care so they didn't took the effort to get Frank Ogelsby's voice installed but just stipulated to use text-to-voice to announce stations.