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  • VRE to order new railcars with Chicago Metra

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #1505246  by davinp
 
VRE will order new passenger railcars through a joint procurement with Chicago Metra.

VRE and Chicago Metra have similar passenger railcar fleets manufactured by the same company. Since VRE and Chicago Metra’s requirements for new
passenger railcars are similar, and both organizations have a need for additional seating capacity, issuing a joint RFP reduces administrative effort while providing both organizations with greater purchasing power.

On March 20, 2019, Metra advertised an RFP to procure new passenger railcars with a base order of 200 cars and the option of up to 200 additional cars. VRE will work in conjunction with Chicago Metra to include in this RFP a base order of 21 passenger railcars, or the equivalent of 1,730 additional seats, with options for up to 48 additional passenger railcars for VRE. This approach will allow Chicago Metra and VRE to leverage their collective
purchasing power

https://www.vre.org/about/board/board-a ... metra-pdf/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1505309  by eolesen
 
Interesting.... I wonder if there's any hope of Nippon Sharyo resuming operations. For their faults on the Midwest nextgen bilevel deal, they still have a strong product that both Metra and VRE have experience with.
 #1505369  by Backshophoss
 
Nippon-Sharyo and Rotem that folded their US operations and retreated back to their home countries.
CRRC is not allowed to bid on any contracts with Fed $$$$ involved
Whats left already has FULL order books,WILL be a long wait. :(
 #1505455  by mtuandrew
 
The recent past orders for the gallery cars were through Sumitomo Corporation of America, not through Nippon Sharyo directly. That means Sumitomo can still bid based upon their recent partnership with Siemens - not that I see Siemens developing gallery cars.

This is also a golden opportunity for Bombardier to finally convince Metra and VRE to buy BiLevels. I prefer gallery cars myself, but I think they’d be pretty popular for the long-distance commuters in particular.