The contract to build Honolulu’s core rapid transit systems was highly attractive and much sought after by contractors in the transit industry.

So it was no surprise when the two losing bidders appealed the contract award to Ansaldo Honolulu JV. Their appeals were independently denied by both the city’s procurement office and the state’s Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Additionally, a state Circuit Court denied an appeal.

Yet, they continue to plead their case in the media by spinning the facts to create doubts about Ansaldo Honolulu JV’s qualifications.

Ansaldo Honolulu JV is the right company to bring rail transit to Honolulu.

The two companies that make up the Ansaldo Hono-lulu joint venture — Ansaldo STS and AnsaldoBreda — each have more than 100 years of experience in building rail transportation systems, including some of the best metro systems in the world.

Ansaldo has an excellent track record and, over the past 15 years alone, has been awarded or completed nine other driverless, steel-wheel-on-steel-rail transit systems around the world that are very similar to the Honolulu project. Our experience in turnkey, driverless rail systems is second to none.

We know our product and we know its price. We submitted a solid bid for this project that provides Oahu taxpayers an excellent value.

Ansaldo has many happy customers across the globe. One just needs to look at the rail system in Copenhagen, Denmark, to see an example of our work.

The Copenhagen Metro has been in operation for nearly 10 years and has been recognized by industry experts from around the world as the World Metro of the Year, Driverless Metro of the Year and European Metro of the Year. The Honolulu rail project will use off-the-shelf technology similar to the award-winning Copenhagen Metro.

The Copenhagen transportation authority recently awarded another similar contract to Ansaldo worth $1 billion to construct the CityRing line.

Milan, Italy, has likewise awarded an additional $500 million contract to Ansaldo for its Milan Line 4 transit system.

These contract awards from existing clients attest to Ansaldoʻs quality of work and focus on customer satisfaction.

Since being selected as the preferred bidder, Ansaldo has rightly gone through unparalleled scrutiny. Both Ansaldo Honolulu JV and its parent company, Finmeccanica, have had their finances thoroughly vetted by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s finance committee and its chairman, First Hawaii Bank Chief Executive Officer Don Horner, who called the company’s financial position "strong."

HART has been very diligent and transparent in holding our feet to the fire to address any and all concerns and ensure that taxpayers get the best price and that the project is done right.

Finmeccanica CEO, Giuseppe Orsi, personally sent a letter to the HART board confirming Ansaldo Honolulu JV’s financial and technical capacity to carry out the Honolulu project and "to reiterate our position that Finmeccanica ensures the compliance by Ansaldo Honolulu JV of its contractual obligations under the Core Systems Contract, regardless of any change in ownership or financial capacity of the partners of the joint venture, namely AnsaldoBreda and Ansaldo STS."

Ansaldo Honolulu JV has extensive experience on similar projects and a keen understanding of what it takes to get the job done on time and on budget. We can and will see the project through to give Honolulu residents a clean and efficient transportation alternative.