As Metro greatly expands its rail network in Los Angeles County in the next few years, the agency has also been working to purchase new rail cars.
After a lengthy proposal process, Metro staff is recommending a $299-million contract with Kinkisharyo International LLC– a firm based in Westwood, Mass. — for the purchase of 78 new light rail vehicles. In addition, the proposed contract includes four options for the purchase of an additional 157 light rail cars for $591 million.
Two other firms proposed on the project. The Metro Board of Directors are scheduled to consider the contract at their Systems Safety and Operations committee meeting on Thursday, March 15 (noon) and at the full Board meeting on Thursday, March 22 (9 a.m.). Both meetings are at Metro headquarters adjacent to Los Angeles Union Station.
The base order and option rail cars are planned for use on the Expo Line, Gold Line Foothill Extension, Crenshaw Line and Blue Line, which has several 69 vehicles due to be retired later in this decade. Although the design of the interiors of the new cars has not been finalized, many of the seats in the new cars will be wider than the new rail cars that debuted on the Gold Line in recent years. There will also be efforts made to maximize extra space for bikes in the rail cars.
One of the criteria looked at by Metro staff was the ability of the contractor to generate jobs in the United States. As part of its proposal, Kinkisharyo committed to creating new U.S. jobs totaling nearly $98 million in wages and benefits — primarily by establishing a new rail car production facility in the U.S.
After the jump are a few more renderings of the light rail vehicles.
I wish we would have started our light rail system (the blue line) with low floor access and Eliminate the need for platforms. Does anyone know why we chose the taller entrance trainsets instead of the lower ones? Either way I’m WAAAAY excited about this
can’t wait to see these bad boys roll down the Crenshaw line and into the valley via the sepulveda pass cooridor 
I’m going to venture a guess: LA Metro wanted to have level boarding on its vehicles but the first LA light rail line was built in the days before low floor vehicles. Level boarding is the best choice for fast loading and unloading since there is no need for steps or ramps. LA had had to design the system with high platforms to meet the high-floor vehicle. Note, all heavy-rail subways feature high-floor, high-platform boarding.
IMO LA Metro made the best choice. It gives the cars a less cluttered, uniform, & open interior free of bulkheads, stairs, and railings while providing the highest level of service in regards to boarding. Seattle’s Link Light Rail (100% Kinkisharyo) might be the only other LRT system to feature level boarding system-wide, but the interiors are really much more chaotic and less efficient inside to accommodate for the low floor arrangement. Seattle could have gone high-floor, high-platform for its system, but due to joint bus operations in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, the vehicles had to be low floor.
High floors had to do with accessibility, Low floors are not as convenient as they might seem. San Diego Trolley is even going to raise their platforms for their newer fleet. Besides our light rail system isn’t built to be like the trolley like streetcar running systems even though some of our system runs on streets we want it to not be tempted to do so.
The cars themselves look really good (a mix of all the light rail vehicles we have had), but the inside (while not final) needs an overhaul. As our light rail lines have become really long, we need comfortable interiors. The seat designs have never been a favorite of mine. I preferred the Newer bus seat deigns. Also for bikes the space for them should be by the doors rather than the middle as during rush hour it can be difficult to get the bikes quickly on and off.
Miguel: It’s called the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Will these new cars have AC outlets in them so people can charge their mobile devices? B>
Looking forward to these!!
Awesome news! Though the real treat would be a standardized livery throughout the system, maybe even an homage to the Pacific Electric…
Disabled transit riders nationwide were polled on the accessibility of their rail transit systems, and our Metro Rail got the highest marks. Boo-ya!
Why cant we order more of the old blue line trains. these new trains that the gold line has are smaller and dont have outlets to charge phones, and they dont look good. Why cant we keep the old fashioned look?
Looks nice, but I really wish they could alter the cross seat positioning to longitudinal positions to increase aisle space. The rail cars are getting crowded as gas prices rise so we need every extra inch of space to accommodate more passengers.