They can just sit back, let someone else invest the time and money, and then steal the results. Industrial espionage is their forte.

They're not worth the cost. We can build this stuff ourselves at much better quality, even if it costs more.

DON'T BUY FROM CHINA!!!
Or Russia, or ...

How about (I know this is a radical concept),
BUY AMERICAN

There is no US manufacturer of passenger rail cars. The last US manufacturer (Budd) went out of business in 2014, but hadn't built anything since 1983. The most frequently contracted companies are Bombardier (Canada), Kawasaki (Japan), Alstom (France), Breda (Italy), Siemens (Germany), Kinki Sharyu (Japan) and CAF (Spain)

Trump can wave his magic wand and bring those jobs back to America.

Just like all the jobs for Trump family products.

Our government, instead of buying American first, which would keep citizens employed & businesses afloat, has decided to act like corporations and buy cheap, anywhere, as long as it is cheap. Which means emerging industrial societies like China, India, ... , thus harming our manufacturing & industrial base.

Candidate Bernie Sanders, went to the Smithsonian Museum gift shop and found an American Flag with a "Made In China" label on it.
Being a Senator at the time, he decided to do something about it. Introduced legislation that forced government entities like the Smithsonian to "Buy American First".

If all public transportation organizations applied this concept, maybe we would still have a train car manufacturing base.

Unless we (U.S.) change our buying habits, we will no longer have any form of a manufacturing base.

...also means Government limiting spending to reduce the cost to taxpayers.

The MTA cost to deliver transit service is approximately twice what wee actually charge passengers. Adding to the Capital Cost to buy more expensive rolling stock (which isn't available) would require us to increase fare, reduce service or get State and local Governments (both run by Democrats) to cough up more money.

FWIW - There ARE "Buy America" provisions in force. The rail car companies do it by building the component parts and then having a US subsidiary do the assembling in a US plant.