11–20 of 109 posts
I thought BaRT had technology from either Siemens or Daimler but that was wrong. Their rolling stock has been provided by a variety of manufacturers[1]. One thing that makes things expensive for BaRT is the choice of non-standard gauge they are bound by. That’s not going to change. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Area_Rapid_Transit_rolli...
Manchester's Metrolink uses Bombardier M5000's ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_M5000 ) that seem to have worked OK. But I do wonder - is there anyone other than Bombardier who makes tram/underground vehicles these days?
See this link [1] for a summary of the current situation (start about halfway down). It doesn't look great. Nippon/Sharyo is going to be at a disadvantage in bidding because their Amtrak contracts with California and Illinois were cancelled due to the prototype cars failing safety tests. It looks like Siemens will play a part in the replacement for those, which perhaps may convince them to try out transit cars in the USA. Competition would be good.
What we have now is CRRC Sifang America (a Chinese state-owned company) has built a factory in Illinois and has orders from Chicago and Boston. The first prototypes are expected this year. We will see if they can deliver.
The new BART trains that are only now rolling out remind me a lot of the Swedish trains I saw more than 20 years ago, except that the BART trains have flat panel screens in them that I doubt those Swedish trains had back then, but the Swedish trains had doors that would silently and easily slide open when you held your hands up to them -- that was something that had greatly impressed me back then, because all the trains I'd been to before had really heavy doors that you'd have to struggle with to open by hand, while on the Swedish trains you just held your hand up and the doors would glide open like on the spacecraft on Star Trek.
The whole experience had left me embarrassed for the US, which I'd seen as a technological leader up to that point. I came away from that trip with an impression that the US was very backwards in many ways. The train system and train differences were just one glaring example, but also politically and in many other ways the US was very backwards.
Now finally these new BART trains rolling out, some NYC trains were also modernizing some about a decade ago, but I haven't been to Sweden or much of the rest of Europe in a long time, and I wonder how much further they've progressed.
The Swiss national train company has their own share of issues with trains built by Bombardier. After years of delays, what was finally delivered is horribly unreliable and passengers also don't like the shaking feeling when they do run. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBB_RABe_502 Two examples doesn't make a trend, but seeing how similar the issues are, maybe there is some systemic issue plaguing them.
Very little these two things have in common other than the name.
Manchester's Metrolink uses Bombardier M5000's ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_M5000 ) that seem to have worked OK. But I do wonder - is there anyone other than Bombardier who makes tram/underground vehicles these days?
Manchester's Metrolink uses Bombardier M5000's ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_M5000 ) that seem to have worked OK. But I do wonder - is there anyone other than Bombardier who makes tram/underground vehicles these days?
Manchester's Metrolink uses Bombardier M5000's ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_M5000 ) that seem to have worked OK. But I do wonder - is there anyone other than Bombardier who makes tram/underground vehicles these days?
Siemens, Alstom, and Mitsubishi off the top of my head. There probably is some Chinese companies but I’m not familiar with them.
There are big-ass tech companies, of course, but the country itself is not exactly a paragon of progress.
> BART gets to withhold the last 5 percent payment for the $2.5 billion fleet until both sets of cars hit their maintenance targets Is it just me or does 5% not seem like nearly a large enough percent? If I only had to hit 20% of my expected performance in exchange for 95% of my pay... I would have a lot more hobbies.