The Sacramento Regional Transit District (RTD) on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015 will begin operating the first set of light rail vehicles newly refurbished by Siemens on the recently opened Blue Line light rail extension to Cosumnes River College.
The additional LRVs will increase capacity on the Blue Line and throughout the RTD LRT system. Siemens is refurbishing 21 LRVs at its manufacturing facility in Sacramento and at the RTD light rail maintenance facility. The LRVs will eventually be in operation system-wide.
RTD acquired the vehicles, which were originally built by Urban Transportation Development Corp. (UTDC), from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. The vehicles originally went into operation in 1987 and have been in storage since RTD acquired them in 2003.The refurbishment includes overhauling bogies; modernizing communications gear, event recorders and auxiliary power systems; updating HVAC systems; and refurbishing carbodies and interior fittings. The refurbishment will add approximately 15 years of additional useful life to the vehicles and allowed RTD to add to its fleet of 36 Siemens-manufactured LRVs at a fraction of the cost of new vehicles.
“We’re proud that Siemens is a long-term partner with RTD to help modernize its transportation fleet in a cost-effective way,” said Chris Maynard, VP Customer Services for Siemens Mobility. “Working together closely with RTD, we were able to combine our technology expertise to give these vehicles new life to move people in and around Sacramento.”