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MetroRail vehicle arriving to downtown station in Houston. (Photo: Markku Björkman)
Houston Metro unveils New Light Rail Cars
Published: Thu, 2015-04-02 13:46-
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Total order of 105 cars
Houston Metro ordered newly 39 of the H3 cars from CAF USA. Those first six CAF cars were delivered in January 2015. These cars will enter service in the weeks leading up to the opening of two new light rail lines in April and will bring the size of the light rail fleet to 76 cars.
For future expansion of the MetroRail system, Metro turned originally to CAF USA, with a total order of 105 cars. This order was cancelled in February 2011 as it did not comply with the "Buy America" Act. CAF gave a refund, which METRO will apply to new cars.
MetroRail currently operates a fleet of 46 light-rail Siemens made vehicles, with an additional 30 on order. The original fleet of 18 Siemens S70 light-rail vehicles for the system's first line was delivered in 2003–2004, purchased for $118 million and built in Florin, California.
Each 96-foot (29 m) long, double-articulated vehicle has four low-platform doors per side, is 70% low-floor, and has a capacity of 72 seated and approximately 169 standing passengers, or a total capacity of around 241 per car. This approximately 250-person capacity has been reached on certain Super Bowl weekends. These S70 cars have a top speed of 66 mph (106 km/h). On this system, vehicles are operated as single cars or in two-car trains.
Source: MetroRail Houston
Av Markku Björkman
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