Metro's oldest rail cars will be rolling out of service

http://wtop.com/?nid=30&sid=1917616

Key points:
Metro plans to phase out 1000-Series by 2015
Winning bid has already been selected but not announced
Seven potential manufacturers named by Metro were Breda, Alstom, Kawasaki, Kinki Sharyo, Nippon Sharyo, Bombardier, and CAF

"SchuminWeb"http://wtop.com/?nid=30&sid=1917616

Key points:
Metro plans to phase out 1000-Series by 2015

Retirement of the 1k cars will start when the "Fleet Enhancement Railcars" clear acceptance. (7258 7557 Note: May not be the numbers these cars will end being assigned, see WMATA fleet unit numbers.)

Winning bid has already been selected but not announced
Seven potential manufacturers named by Metro were Breda, Alstom, Kawasaki, Kinki Sharyo, Nippon Sharyo, Bombardier, and CAF[/i]

Agenda Special Finance & Administration Committee March 25, 2010 (45.9 KB PDF file)

Rehabilitation of the 100 4k cars is part of the plan. Not sure if it will be part of the contract.
The first 64 cars will be paid for out the Tysons, Dulles, Loudoun County N Route Silver line budget.
Prototype acceptance of the first 4 cars will take place before serial production begins on the first group of 124 cars.

Also part of the procurement is the construction of an commissioning facility in Greenbelt Yard and a test track along the E Route Green line between Greenbelt Yard and Collage park.

Solicitation RFP RC7000/RAM

Synopsis and Attachments
Attachments: 21 PDF files totaling 115 MB

SchuminWeb wrote:http://wtop.com/?nid=30&sid=1917616

Key points:
Metro plans to phase out 1000-Series by 2015
Winning bid has already been selected but not announced
Seven potential manufacturers named by Metro were Breda, Alstom, Kawasaki, Kinki Sharyo, Nippon Sharyo, Bombardier, and CAF

Great news about the 7K's! Sad to see the 1K's go though. Way to keep us in the loop Metro. I can't believe they're this far along in the procurement process and are only just now informing the public, and still won't tell us who won the bid. I'm really glad to see Rotem isn't one of the potential bidders. Hopefully either Kawasaki, B'dier, or Alstom won the bid, although the rest of them are okay as well.

"realtype"
Great news about the 7K's! Sad to see the 1K's go though. Way to keep us in the loop Metro. I can't believe they're this far along in the procurement process and are only just now informing the public, and still won't tell us who won the bid. I'm really glad to see Rotem isn't one of the potential bidders. Hopefully either Kawasaki, B'dier, or Alstom won the bid, although the rest of them are okay as well.

I don't think the contract has been awarded yet, the staff and the Board have likely seen all of the bids. What is happening on Thursday is the staff will make their formal recommendation to the Finance & Administration Committee as to who should be awarded the contract, they will vote and pass there recommendation to the Full Board for the final vote.

Agenda Special Finance & Administration Committee March 25, 2010 (45.9 KB PDF file)

There was a story in the paper a week or so ago:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02433.html

Officials building a subway line to Dulles International Airport say Metro is overcharging them for new rail cars, a budget-busting cost that they predict could delay the opening of the extension and force higher fees for Dulles Toll Road commuters.

Unless Metro agrees to eliminate a $75 million increase on 64 rail cars it is preparing to buy for the new Silver Line, the regional airports authority won't agree to the deal, the officials said.

At issue is Metro's plan to have the Dulles rail project pay the entire cost of developing the new cars. Authority officials say that is unfair when the investment will benefit the entire Metrorail system.

I wonder if there will be efforts to preserve a set of 1000s when they're retired.

"Tom6921"
I wonder if there will be efforts to preserve a set of 1000s when they're retired.

Not that I know of.

Hopefully more then a single pair get preserve and hopefully some get preserve off WMATA property. If I had the cash I would buy 6 cars.

Maybe Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunk, Maine will take a pair, just like they did with the SOAC Experimental cars, but if Seashore would get a pair, they would likely equip them with Trolley Poles and run it down the 1.7 mile track they have just like the R22 37371 and R33 9327 of the New York City Subway. Also, the Rohrs would join other 1970s built fleet other than the FTA SOAC train along with MBTA Boston Boeing Green Line LRV 3424 and MBTA Boston's Blue Line Hawker-Siddeley cars 0622/0623. Adding WMATA's 1000s to that fleet would be perfect, and nice add to the 1970s-era Rapid Transit Fleet at Seashore

Robert Paniagua wrote:Maybe Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunk, Maine will take a pair

.

It would be nice, I guess. It is a shame that there is no place closer that could ttake them (somewhere within a 2 hour drive, or somewhere along the NEC).

This would be a great idea except a potential museum buyer probably wouldn't be able to give them as good of a price as a scrapper could and the way WMATA is managed it would seem like in this situation they just "wouldn't care." Then again it is their first rail fleet retirement so we don't know for sure but if things go the WMATA way then they'll probably screw over all of the fans who care about the 1k's.

I love the system, I dislike the management (to put it nicely) so I am admittantly biased in my comments,

Davis

While I'd like to see some 1k's preserved, I have to agree with Davis. I doubt WMATA will care about preserving any.

There is a sliver of hope though - the money train - four 1k cars with little modernization, I doubt they'll retire those as they don't come into passenger use.

I'll miss the 1000 series cars when they are retired because they have the most seats of any car type that I feel comfortable sitting in with my long legs. (I always try to sit near the doors in the first pair of forward/backward-facing seats or in the side-facing seats if necessary. I don't like sitting in the designated handicapped seating near the center doors due to concerns I'll have to move and stand, and the 1000 series cars have extra side-facing seats near the end doors that aren't formally designated handicapped seating.)

So do you think WMATA will allow a "Farewell to the 1000's" fantrip when the end comes?

I know, I was just wondering about that too, since for Metro, this would be their first rolling stock farewell unlike New York Transit Authority or MBTA in Boston which are more than 100 years old and have done farewell fantrips to outgoing cars, so I don't know of WMATA will be doing it, but IMHO they should do one with the Rohrs (an entire 8 car set) to showcase it's last trips

Yeah they should take it all the way around the system, every line, every stop. That would be a good farewell tour!

Davis