LA Metro Contract Award for Heavy Rail Vehicles

Trains Magazine Transit
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This was on the System Safety, Security and Operations Committee
agenda for the November 17th Meeting and is scheduled to go to the full Board on December 1st. The only other bidder was Hyundai Rotem U.S.A., Inc.

AUTHORIZE the Chief Executive Officer to award a firm-fixed price Contract under RFP No. OP6355500HR4000, Heavy Rail Vehicle (HRV) Acquisition, to China Railway Rolling Stock Corp (CRRC) MA Corporation in the not-to-exceed amount of $178,395,869 for a period of 62 months from Notice-to-Proceed (NTP) for the production and delivery of the 64 HRV Base Order, subject to the resolution of protest(s), if any.

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What part of “LA Metro” is ordering ‘heavy’ vehicles?

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Los Angeles Country Metropolitan Transportation Authority

aka Metro

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“Heavy” in this case refers to Red/Purple Line subway cars (as opposed to the light rail cars on other rail lines).

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jmonier (11-22):

Thanks for the clearly presented clarification. It is amazing how just a few minor details opens up one’s understanding of a matter.

The Red Line was ridden maybe 20-25 years ago with my step father-in-law when he was alive, but no recollection of the railcars themselves is had except that they were speedy.

I should go out there and ride them again and see just how heavy the present fleet is.

Best,

K.P.

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The most obvious thing is that they look and feel (and probably are) wider than the light rail cars even though the track gauge is the same. If you ride one and then change to the other at 7th St/Metro, I think it will be quite obvious.

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I found this thread that has a lot of info on the difference between LA light and heavy rail: http://transittalk.proboards.com/thread/867/running-lrt-trains-red-line?page=1

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One last thing: Apparently “heavy” and “light” do not refer to the weight of the cars (as both you and I assumed) but instead to passenger volume (although that distinction has become blurred in recent years).

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It will be interesting to see if the Orange Empire Railway Museum adds retired Metro vehicles to their collection when the first Blue and Red line cars are replaced in the next few years. The Western Railway Museum in Rio Vista has already added Muni Boeing–Vertol Light Rail Vehicle. Interesting to see if they get one of the original BART cars in a few years.

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They would need new track (gauge is 5’-6")& Power is 1000 V DC if they want to operate them.

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Passenger capacity and infrastructure.

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Yeah, OERM already has some San Diego Trolley Siemens U2s on the museum grounds. If they get the L.A. Metro Breda A650 vehicles, I could picture them on static display inside a building meant to simulate an underground station.