Siemens to upgrade Santa Clara light rail

Siemens has been chosen by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), a US independent special district that provides sustainable, accessible, community-focused transportation options for Santa Clara County, California, to provide innovative electrification technology to power the Guadalupe Corridor light rail line. VTA’s infrastructure modernisation will replace 27-year-old systems with Siemens’ new technology that includes advanced monitoring and diagnostic features to streamline maintenance a
March 17, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
189 Siemens has been chosen by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), a US independent special district that provides sustainable, accessible, community-focused transportation options for Santa Clara County, California, to provide innovative electrification technology to power the Guadalupe Corridor light rail line. VTA’s infrastructure modernisation will replace 27-year-old systems with Siemens’ new technology that includes advanced monitoring and diagnostic features to streamline maintenance activities.

The new technology includes traction power substations that convert alternating current electricity provided by the local utility to direct current in order to power the light rail trains, modern protection communication devices and circuit breakers and controllers that monitor the system and report issues if they arise. These systems can detect faults sooner and minimise stress on the line, resulting in a longer vehicle lifecycle.

Siemens will be responsible for the full delivery of the project from design and production to final commissioning, including all elements of preparing the site and replacing the old existing traction power substations that converts electric power for the vehicles. Commissioning is scheduled to begin in November 2017.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Siemens to launch next generation ANPR camera at Traffex 2017
    March 28, 2017
    Siemens will be unveiling a number of new developments at Traffex 2017, in particular Plus+, a new generation of traffic controller and signals. The company will also launch its next generation automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera platform, Sicore II, at Traffex 2017 at the NEC, Birmingham (4-6 April) Sicore II has been has been designed for average speed control and enforcement, low emission or clean air zones and access control and is capable of three lane coverage with a single camera.
    Read More
  • Automating seat belt compliance a priority for road safety
    February 2, 2012
    Finland's VTT is developing a mobile, automated seatbelt compliance system. Here, the organisation's Matti Kutila discusses progress
    Read More
  • Integrated corridor management aids multi-modal transport planning
    January 24, 2012
    Telvent’s Jorgen Pedersen and Tip Franklin discuss how integrated corridor management can create synergies within a multimodal transportation infrastructure, while promoting modal shift. The mantra ‘We cannot build ourselves out of congestion’ has long been stated and too often ignored. But with the economy in dire straits, funding deficits and pressure to reduce governmental spending, this is now being taken seriously by almost everyone who has an interest in the flow of traffic. By ‘everyone’ we include
    Read More
  • Calculating the cost of stellar solutions
    August 10, 2016
    The increasing availability and accuracy of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is opening up low-cost options in many areas as David Crawford finds out. Boosting commercialisation of European global navigation satellite system (EGNSS) technologies for ITS initially depends heavily on demonstrating competitive and cost/benefit advantages obtainable from the deployment of EGNOS (the current European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service), and ultimately the EU’s Galileo constellation (see box). So,
    Read More

Highlighted Content