Siemens to refurbish LRVs for Sacramento

The Sacramento Regional Transit District announced Wednesday that it has awarded a contract to Siemens Rail Systems to modify and refurbish 21 light rail vehicles that it acquired from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in 2003 and that have since been in storage. The cars were originally built by Urban Transportation Development Corp. (UTDC) and went into operation in 1987.

RTD said the refurbishment will add 15 years of useful life to the cars and expand co its fleet “at a fraction of the cost of the cost of new vehicles.”

Siemens will modernize the vehicles’/communications, event recorders, and auxiliary power systems.

“Siemens is pleased to be able to help RT renew its existing assets,” said Michael Cahill, president, Rail Systems division, Siemens Industry, Inc. “This job is the ideal opportunity to demonstrate that refurbishing light rail trains is a viable and cost-effective option to extend the useful life of an agency’s existing rolling stock. Being a light rail market leader we possess the knowledge of systems and regulations to bring these vehicles up to today’s standards that are needed to serve the current market.”

RT said it will use the refurbished light fleet for future additional service on e3xisting lines They will enable RTD to run its first “limited stop express” on the Gold Line (Folsom/Sunrise line), planned for 2014.

The agency also plans to use the refurbished cars to help support the extension of the Blue Line to Cosumnes River College, which is set to open in 2015, and eventually express service on the Watt/Interstate 80 portion of the Blue Line as well.