20k Per camera on Amtrak Trains.

bp2008

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The Wall Street Journal said:
Mr. Boardman said he estimated the cost of installing the cameras at $20,000 per locomotive, for a total cost of about $1.4 million. He said it would cost roughly $6 million to outfit Amtrak’s entire fleet of 300 locomotives nationwide but gave no timeline for that project.
Not quite 20k per camera. I bet this includes multiple cameras and rugged recording equipment.
 

fenderman

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Not quite 20k per camera. I bet this includes multiple cameras and rugged recording equipment.
They can probably cover the area with two cams max..Regardless, its overpriced.....i doubt that project is going to end up costing 6 million...when they say roughly 6 million they mean 10 million :D
 

erkme73

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I can see you and I think alike, Fenderman. I'll tell you a quick story that will help explain the graft in any government bidding process.

My (small) company manufactures small gas recovery systems, to collect a dielectric gas used in electric transmission equipment (think electric utility companies). A branch of the military also uses it in their aircraft.

We were contacted by them to supply them with two prototype units to recover the gas from their aircraft. But, because we were not an authorized vendor for the Government Services Administration (GSA), we either had to go through a cost-prohibitive evaluation and certification process, or we could use a "prime contractor"

Prime contractors are those who already do a lot of work for the DOD - think Northrup Grumman, Lockheed, Boeing, etc. Clearly, that was our only option.

Long story longer, our final price for the prototype units to the prime contractor was about $40,000 - for both units. After they were delivered to the DOD, I met with the buyer during vendor meeting dinner. He was a little inebriated, and let down his guard - and in the process, told me what the final invoice was from the contractor to the DOD. Just shy of $500,000.

If I didn't directly profit from the $40k sale, I might just be offended. However, as a tax paying citizen, I'm beside myself to know that this is how our government agencies work. Amtrak is no different, I'm sure.
 

LittleBrother

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I can see you and I think alike, Fenderman. I'll tell you a quick story that will help explain the graft in any government bidding process.

My (small) company manufactures small gas recovery systems, to collect a dielectric gas used in electric transmission equipment (think electric utility companies). A branch of the military also uses it in their aircraft.

We were contacted by them to supply them with two prototype units to recover the gas from their aircraft. But, because we were not an authorized vendor for the Government Services Administration (GSA), we either had to go through a cost-prohibitive evaluation and certification process, or we could use a "prime contractor"

Prime contractors are those who already do a lot of work for the DOD - think Northrup Grumman, Lockheed, Boeing, etc. Clearly, that was our only option.

Long story longer, our final price for the prototype units to the prime contractor was about $40,000 - for both units. After they were delivered to the DOD, I met with the buyer during vendor meeting dinner. He was a little inebriated, and let down his guard - and in the process, told me what the final invoice was from the contractor to the DOD. Just shy of $500,000.

If I didn't directly profit from the $40k sale, I might just be offended. However, as a tax paying citizen, I'm beside myself to know that this is how our government agencies work. Amtrak is no different, I'm sure.
Hey, think about all the hard work they did. I mean, they had a few meetings, maybe sent some emails. If that's not worth $460k, what is?
 

NVR

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Anyone wants to put the Mobius action cam in an Aluminum box and offer it to Amtrak with me? Heck for that price we can spoil them and use the Gopro.
 

nayr

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my Wife worked for a company that installed and maintained security cameras on freight trains.. overall they were pretty crappy cameras but they cost the train company a fortune because they provided dual cellular and satellite uplinks for remote monitoring, onboard solid state storage in a custom enclosure designed to survive a crash, remote video storage, and they actually monitored and replaced cameras that were "mysteriously" getting damaged on a regular basis (by disgruntled employees).

Was cool to go for lunch with my old lady and watch a wall full of video streams from the middle of nowhere where there was no other camera, or people for hundreds of miles.. there was ALWAYS one camera busted and looking at the ground going by.. It seemed like an extremely harsh environment, 80mph constant winds, insane amounts of vibration/shock, extreme weather and employees whom didnt take a job thousands of miles from an office to be monitored constantly.

IIRC they even had to move one full time employee to Chicago just to service the Freight Trains's and nothing else... if I was going to quote the Govt it'd probably be alot more than $20k a system, it'd cost more than half that just in dealing with government requirements.
 
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spyfly81

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We were contacted by them to supply them with two prototype units to recover the gas from their aircraft. But, because we were not an authorized vendor for the Government Services Administration (GSA), we either had to go through a cost-prohibitive evaluation and certification process, or we could use a "prime contractor"
Sounds right it is sickening, I know a local company that provides GSA approved radiator caps. they go to the local auto parts store, stick them in a GSA bar coded bag and up charge just shy of $150 for a $8 part.
 
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