I think the gist of the article is that we don't have the same busses across the US. Yes there are only two major manufacturers, but they're all being procured in different ways, in different custom configurations, all across the country.
That's exactly what the person above was getting at.
> They standardize rolling stock. The same stuff is used across the country. I think this is really important. If you think about how the US does things, every city will have its own procurement process.
Having everything ordered piecemeal in smaller custom orders is more expensive and gives cities a disadvantage in negotiation power
"standardizing" doesn't just mean ending up with the same stuff. it means making an up-front committment to a supplier that you will buy the same stuff, and getting a better deal in exchange for that committment.
if you end up buying a whole bunch of units of the same stuff without planning to, you're wasting all that potential efficiency.
Standard means you buy stuff that is similar to everyone else in ways that matter. paint is easy to do custom - and since everyone wants it they put in paint booths for any scheme. you want them to invest in jigs which costs money but pays off in volume - so work with the engineers to figure out what matters.
