BOSTON, MA - Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and local officials earlier this week unveiled their newest rail car that will operate on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA) Green Line light-rail route.
 CAF-built 3900 in testing in Boston! |
Starting in September, the new cars will be put into service incrementally on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA) Green Line light-rail route. All 24 new cars, (series 3900-3923) are expected to be in service next year. The cars will have a 10 percent increase in capacity compared with existing cars built by KinkiSharyo-built and Ansaldo Breda-built operating on the line. The new units' sliding doors are designed to improve boarding and exiting. Safety enhancements include the first crash energy management structural design to be installed on a U.S. light-rail vehicle, MBTA officials said in a press release.
 Another view of Boston 3900! |
Under a $118 million contract signed in 2014, CAF USA Inc. is manufacturing and delivering the 24 low-floor light-rail vehicles. CAF is manufacturing the shells and frames at its plant in Spain, with final assembly and testing occurring at its plant in Elmira, New York. The MBTA required additional car to maintain the Green Line's current headways between cars once the line's extension is completed in 2022, agency officials said. The MBTA broke ground on that project in late June.
EL PASO, TX - Progress continues steadily on this new somewhat heritage trolley line. The third of El Paso’s newly-renovated streetcars, car 1504 arrived home to the Sun City over the July 14-15 weekend.
This was the first car delivered to the new line in the 1960s livery with a green and white car body and dark green belt rail. Three more PCCs are due from Brookville in the coming months and the final two will sport National City Lines "Fruit salad" yellow, white and lime green livery. These cars have all the modern amenities (air conditioning, power collection by pantograph, turn signals and back up lights) none of which were around when these cars were built 80 years ago.
KING OF PRUSSIA (SUBURBAN PHLADELPHIA) PA - Progressive Railroading reported in July 3rd that the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) had released a request for proposal (RFP) to advance engineering work for its proposed King of Prussia Rail extension of the Norristown High Speed Line.
The RFP's scope covers preliminary design work, including utility and geotechnical investigations and surveying. The chosen bidder will advance the engineering and architectural design from the conceptual locally preferred alternative, which SEPTA chose in January.
The firm will complete 15 percent of the project's total design, according to a SEPTA press release.
The selected engineering consultant also will take into consideration the public's needs as the design is developed and finalized.
SEPTA N-5 at 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby, PA. |
"The extension of the Norristown High Speed Line to King of Prussia will promote and strengthen regional growth by better linking Center City, University City and King of Prussia — the greater Philadelphia region's three largest employment centers," said SEPTA General Manager Jeffrey Knueppel.
The 4.5-mile King of Prussia extension will provide a one-seat ride to King of Prussia from either the 69th Transportation Center or the Norristown Transportation Center.
LOS ANGELES, CA - Metro NipponSharyo light rail car 144 will make its last run on July 25 before retirement. Afterwards, it will be trucked to its new home at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris. Car 144 was one of 54 identical “P865” type cars to open service on the Los Angeles-to- Long Beach Blue Line on July 14, 1990 — a date that marks the return of rail to Los Angeles County after a 27-year absence.
 NipponSharyo P865 #144 at Division 14 in Santa Monica in its third paint scheme!
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Since then, 144 has been a regular fixture of the Blue and Expo lines for 28 years and logged more than 1.8 million miles of service. The last of the P865 class will be retired from service in August of this year, while 15 almost identical (but five years newer) “P2020” class cars will continue to run for an additional five to six years.
KinkiSharyo, the company manufacturing Metro’s newest fleet of rail cars, volunteered to donate the cost of transporting car 144 from Los Angeles to the museum. Mr. Akiyoshi Oba, President of KinkiSharyo International, L.L.C., said “KinkiSharyo is proud to provide Metro and the citizens of Los Angeles with rail vehicles for the present and future. Being a part of the L.A. rail legacy, we are delighted to partner with Metro to help preserve rail history at the Orange Empire Railway Museum. So if you’re a fan of the old P865s and are a little bummed about their retirement, never fear! You can now visit car 144 at the Orange Empire Railway Museum.
NipponSharyo P865 144 at the Orange Empire Railway Museum on Wednesday, July 25, 2018! |
By sending the car to the Orange Empire Railway Museum, it is hoped that the car will be preserved and operated for visitors on the museum’s demonstration railway. It will be in good company, taking its place among dozens of preserved historic Los Angeles trolleys and interurban trains which have been delighting visitors at the museum since it was founded in 1958. The museum is the only place in the world where you can actually take a ride in a restored “Red Car” or “Yellow Car” from Los Angeles’ transit past.
 Los Angeles Railway #525 at Perris, CA! |
 Pacific Electric #717 at Perris, CA! |
As LA Metro moves to decommission the entire 54 car P865 fleet by August 2018, (...There are less than ten left as this issue goes to press!...) they have prepared the very first car, NipponSharyo 1989-built P865 car 100 for permanent display in the city of Long Beach so the paint shop under Richard Wurtele, Director Division 11 Rail Fleet Services
in Long Beach returned the car to its as delivered paint scheme and rolled it out in mid-July:
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PERRIS, CA - Gary Starre, OERM Assistant Division Manager of Operations at the Orange Empire Railway Museum reported to the Times that (now former) LA METRO car 144 was under power for the first time at OERM on July 28, 2018, after having arrived in the early morning hours of July 25th. Up until about 10 days earlier, the car had been in service on the Long Beach Blue Line and the Expo Line to Santa Monica. The odometer reads that it has a little under 1.9 million miles on it. Up until about 10 days earlier, the car had been in service on the Long Beach Blue Line. The odometer reads that it has a little under 1.9 million miles on it.
LA Metro P865 #144 at the Orange Empire Railway Museum - all powered up! |
The acquisition team included volunteers Chris Baldwin, Byron Brainard, A. J. Chier, Noah McCann, Gary Starre, Ryan Keck, Jeff Williams, Donald Woodward plus many many others. Additionally helping to move the car from the unloading area over which there was no energized overhead wire at the rear of the Museum up to the front were Ryan Gallaher and Bryce Brummett. Generous donations by several individuals, as well as from KinkiSharyo Corporation, which builds the new P3010s for Metro, made this goal become a reality. OERM plans to create a "car card" for display inside the car listing all the names of the persons who helped with this acquisition. Certain METRO LA (LACMTA) personnel devoted a lot of time, some of it volunteered, over the past few weeks introducing us to the car and readying it for the trip to Perris.
On Saturday, July 28, the first thing they did as soon as the car was powered up, was to accidentally turn on the heater when it was already 100 degrees outside. After that was remedied and the air conditioning cooled the car down, it was moved up to the main line. Several fault lights came during the first runs, and they worked our way through the manual to correct each situation as they learned the systems on this car.
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Later that evening, the combined LACMTA Appreciation Dinner and Members BBQ got underway. Several
current and former LACMTA operators were invited to enjoy the event with their families, and in the process, answered a lot of our questions.
The next step is to develop a training program, first by and for the instructors, and then for the
operators, while the mechanics study the voluminous maintenance manuals. The MTA operator's manual alone is 193 pages long,
so we will develop a simpler manual for OERM training. Spare parts have been, and are being, acquired, and a request has been
placed with LACMTA for the donation of an additional car to be used a spare parts source.
After dinner, Metro 144 made several runs on the main line, with members and guests getting a chance to run it. Included in those who got a turn at the controls of 144 was Ray Ballash, OERM Member No. 1. Pacific Electric 1920s era "Hollywood" car 717 and LARY 1930s era PCC 3001 were operated on the Loop, with many members, guests and LA Metro personnel trying their hands on the old cars under the guidance of operators John Cunningham and Gary Bolton.
 Los Angeles urban transit - what a difference 70 years makes! |
With the addition of the Metro 144 to the San Diego U2 LRVs, OERM now has a collection that truly represents the history of rail transit in Southern California from horse car days through the present.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) was scheduled to kick off its fifth consecutive trolley tunnel "blitz" repairs.
SEPTA shut down subway-surface trolley service in the Center City tunnel from 10:00 PM Friday July 13 to 5:00 AM Monday July 23 to allow crews to perform repair work on a round-the-clock schedule.
Trolley routes 10 (Lancaster and Lansdowne Avenues); 11 (Woodland Avenue); 13 (Chester Avenue); 34 (Baltimore Avenue) and 36 (Elmwood Avenue) used the existing "diversion" trackage and took passengers to the 40th Street station of the Market Frankford Subway Elevated (MFSE). Trolleys did not operate in the subway-surface tunnel for the entire ten days.
 SEPTA Kawasaki car 9089 exiting the 40th Street Portal on Route 34!
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The 2018 Trolley "Blitz" slate of projects included replacing a track switch at the 40th Street Portal (shown above in front of car 9089), reconstructing the eastbound and westbound tangent tracks on Woodland Avenue, renewing guarded curves entering and exiting the 36th Street Portal, and replacing curve rails east of the 15th Street Westbound Station.
In addition, SEPTA's power department workers will remove about 15,000 feet of abandoned conduit and communication cables in the tunnel and perform maintenance work at a substation.
Other work during the blitz will include energy-efficient light installation, electrical-switch testing, Ludlow Interlocking switch maintenance and graffiti removal.
"The blitzes have allowed our crews to replace switches and thousands of feet of rail and overhead contact wire, and undertake an aggressive improvement and cleaning program at the trolley stations," said SEPTA General Manager Jeffrey Knueppel.
This detour is in addition to that required by the complete replacement of the Woodland Avenue bridge, located on Woodland Avenue between at 47th and 48th Streets, over the tracks for SEPTA's Media/Elwyn Regional Rail line. The bridge is used by SEPTA trolley routes 11 and 36. During construction, Route 11 and 36 trolleys are being detoured to Chester Avenue between 49th Street and the 40th Street Portal.
The bridge, which was constructed in the 1920s, had severely deteriorated due to age, weather and traffic. Weight restrictions were currently in place on the bridge due to its condition. Replacement was necessary for continued safe, reliable trolley service and for local vehicular traffic flow.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - The Market Street Railway reported on July 2nd that after four years in "exile" at Muni Metro East, Muni's historic streetcars returned to the Cameron Beach Yard beginning on June 15, 2018. They were sent away so LRVs could park there while Green Division across Geneva Avenue had its tracks rebuilt (a job that took twice as long as predicted).
Earlier this month, a Market Street Railway photographer caught Muni 1071 (Twin Cities Transit). Melbourne W2 496 (1928), Melbourne SW6 (1948), Muni 1058 (Chicago Transit Authority) and either 1006 or 1008 at the Cameron Beach facility. |
This means that the streetcars on the E and F lines will henceforth enter and leave service via the J-Church line, and according to Muni rules, they are supposed to carry passengers who want to ride along the J-line, all the way from 17th & Church Streets to Geneva & San Jose Avenues, including over the scenic right-of-way on Dolores Heights and the fast-running right-of-way through the Bernal Cut along San Jose Avenue.
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA - After months and months of delays, the Toronto Transportation Commission (TTC) says it is “very frustrated” to learn most of Toronto’s new streetcars will need to be sent back to Quebec for repairs. According to an investigation published by the Toronto Star on Tuesday night, a serious welding defect could see the vehicles fail prematurely. However, TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said they’ve been aware of the issue for nearly a year.
“This was something that Bombardier identified and informed staff about last fall,” Ross told Breakfast Television on Wednesday. “We directed them to put a plan together to make these repairs, to get these cars fixed.” This is yet another bump in the ongoing struggle to get the 204 new streetcars, ordered for the city in 2009, on the streets. The entire fleet was expected to be in place by the end of 2019 but so far only 89 are in service. “Clearly this entire episode, which has had many chapters, one disappointment after another, is one big disappointment made up of a series of smaller disappointments. It doesn’t reflect well on them, it’s not satisfactory to us or to our customers who use the TTC,” said Mayor John Tory.
“Going forward, we’re going to have to see what that says about our ability to do business with this company in the future.” “These are not safety critical issues, nevertheless we are very, very frustrated by all of this,” Ross said. “We do not want streetcars taken out of service for, what amounts to, quality assurance issues in the manufacturing of the first 67 cars.”
Ross said the issue has since been rectified at the manufacturing plant and the issue is not being seen in the most recent streetcars coming from Bombardier. Ross added that all 67 cars will not be taken out of service at one time to be repaired.
“You’ll see three, maybe four at the max, removed from service and shipped to Quebec for these repairs,” Ross said. However, it could take as long as 19 weeks to repair each streetcar. “They do take a long time because they basically have to strip the car down to get to the frames.”
“We’ve been dealt a really bad hand here, there’s no question about that,” added TTC spokesperson Josh Colle. “But we will ensure and make sure that service is where it should be for our customers, and that’s really out priority. Bombardier’s made it way harder for us to deliver on that, but we will deliver on that.” Ross said that all of the repairs are expected to be completed by 2022. “If we don’t do this work, if Bombardier don’t do this work, then we’ll start to see problems with the frames 10 (to) 15 years out,” he explained. “They will then need, perhaps, more extensive repairs and they will not be covered by the warranties.”
Because the streetcars are still under warranty, the cost of repairs will be paid for by Bombardier. Ross said that by sending only a few streetcars to be repaired at a time, it will ensure that the city still has enough streetcars on the road to meet route demands. Any shortages will be supplemented by buses. “The impact on our customers will be minimal. As far as we’re concerned right now, you shouldn’t see any difference.” The Executive Director of the TTC Riders advocacy group says even losing a few of the new streetcars at a time could have an impact on commuters.
“The new streetcars are accessible, so it’s really urgent that they’re delivered and fixed as soon as possible,” said Shelagh Pizey-Allen. “Of course, we experience delays and overcrowding on a daily basis, so we hope this doesn’t add to it.”
Ross said this won’t impact the delivery of new streetcars from Bombardier.
Trolleyville can not recall a bigger fiasco since the Boeing/Vertol LRV in the 1970s.
