Twin Cities’ Metropolitan Council chooses Siemens to provide new light rail vehicles for Southwest expansion

Siemens has been chosen by the US Twin Cities of Minnesota and St Paul Metropolitan Council to manufacture 27 new light rail vehicles that will operate on the Metro Transit Southwest line expansion. Siemens will begin engineering the new vehicles, which will feature improvements including a redesigned middle section to improve passenger flow including wheelchairs and bicycles, ice cutters to remove sleet from the overhead wires that provide the electrical current to power the vehicles, and preferred seat
October 28, 2016 Read time: 1 min
189 Siemens has been chosen by the US Twin Cities of Minnesota and St Paul Metropolitan Council to manufacture 27 new light rail vehicles that will operate on the Metro Transit Southwest line expansion.

Siemens will begin engineering the new vehicles, which will feature improvements including a redesigned middle section to improve passenger flow including wheelchairs and bicycles, ice cutters to remove sleet from the overhead wires that provide the electrical current to power the vehicles, and preferred seating to meet Americans with Disabilities guidelines, among many others.

The contract expands Siemens relationship with the Twin Cities, adding to the existing fleet of 59 Siemens S70 light rail vehicles successfully operating on Metro Transit’s Green and Blue lines.  Five additional S70s are currently in production in Sacramento and will add capacity to the existing system.

The first light rail vehicle is expected to arrive in Minnesota in 2019.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • 50 years of Cubic Transportation Systems
    August 25, 2022
    If you detect an air of celebration on the Cubic stand, there’s a good reason for it. June 2022 marked 50 years of Cubic Transportation Systems. While Cubic Corporation started 70 years ago, the transportation business began in 1972 and has since been nurtured and developed into a successful $1 billion enterprise and an established leader in the transportation industry.
    Read More
  • Smart phones offer smarter way to pay for travel
    December 16, 2013
    David Crawford reviews developments in near field communications for mass transit payments. ‘A carefully-designed and well-implemented mobile near field communications (NFC) solutions can give passengers a compelling experience that will encourage them to make greater use of public transport.’ That was the confident conclusion of a recent joint White Paper drawn up by the International Association of Public Transport and the global mobile operators’ representative group GSMA.
    Read More
  • London to get more electric buses
    July 16, 2015
    Transport for London (TfL) has announced that two further bus routes will operate entirely with electric buses from autumn next year, lowering carbon emissions and helping to improve London’s air quality. The five-year contract to operate the routes has been awarded to Go Ahead following a competitive tender process, and will mean that 51 electric buses will operate across the two routes that will become the second and third pure electric bus routes in the Capital. Go Ahead will confirm which manufactu
    Read More
  • ITS America publishes connected vehicle guidance
    April 22, 2015
    Guidance on the likely impact of multipath communications on connected vehicle development has been published by ITS America. ITS America’s Connected Vehicle Technical Insight looks at the challenges and opportunities wireless interoperability could provide in vehicle applications. In particular the 22-page document examines the processes by which data can be transferred from one vehicle to another (V2V), or between a vehicle and the infrastructure (V2I).
    Read More

Highlighted Content