Is there a specific problem with the most recent acquisition of Siemens cars or are they just doing their due diligence?
It's a new order, so a new RFP. Previous orders, as I understand it, were made directly from Siemens after it had been decided internally to continue with them and seeing if they could "piggyback" off another city's order and get a similar model car off the shelf. Recent City-wide policy away from single-source supply contracts and, as I understand it, a desire to see what else is out there saw them put out an RFP to more manufacturers this time.
Expanding on my above post a bit, I do know what manufacturers have bid and what they are proposing. The upcoming announcement of the winning proponent and the next model of train is what I was alluding to a few weeks ago about an interesting mid-September announcement
I was offered a volunteer role in the process to review the proposals and provide comments and input from a "customer experience" perspective.
The confidentiality agreement I signed is pretty restrictive given the monetary value of the contract, so I can't really say anymore. I can't comment about the ins and outs of the review process, who the proponents are, what the proposals entailed, or anything like that. I don't even know who the winner is for sure other than an educated guess as I wasn't privy to any of that.
I suppose all I can say right now is to wait and see and hopefully the decision and the resulting product pleases most people, and that I tried to do the best I could to give strong input and speak to the "customer experience" of the proposals (while trying to encompass divergent views in the ridership on certain aspects) and put forth ideas on opportunities for improving certain elements.
Last edited by frinkprof; 09-04-2013 at 07:17 PM.
The Following 9 Users Say Thank You to frinkprof For This Useful Post:
I hope whatever models they go with, they look a little more futuristic. Even the newest Siemens LRT trains look pretty fuddy duddy compared to what you seen in Europe. They just look like squared off versions of our originals.
Props to Frink for being able to still post in here. There is so much interesting stuff that would be very easy to gush about, it's taking some restraint isn't it?
To vaguely address some of the questions: I was impressed and pleasantly surprised. A solid effort was put it and we'll reap the rewards.
__________________
“Such suburban models are being rationalized as ‘what people want,’ when in fact they are simply what is most expedient to produce. The truth is that what people want is a decent place to live, not just a suburban version of a decent place to live.”
They will put nearly every available car into service, just like they do now. To start, that may mean only an occasional train has a fourth car.
It'll start with peak hour on the South-NW line - where the greatest congestion issues are now. Depending on funding and how fast we can procure more cars (not only for replacement of U2s, but also growth) the other line will be phased in peak hour 4 car, and eventually to permanent 4 car all the time.
The next order will be 50 cars for $200M (all but confirmed, might get one more car or something or the total be $198M or some small change like that). That order is slated to be broken as 20 units replacing U2 cars and 30 for growth.
If those numbers hold true, that leaves 58 remaining U2s to be replaced and, with 190 total LRVs in the fleet another 34 will be needed (in addition to the 30 from the next order) to achieve full-time 4-car operation.
That's another 92 cars for a cost of about $370M. You might be able to defer some of the ones needed for 100% 4 car operation (although I personally think that the extra capacity provided the partial 4 car operation will be swallowed up pretty quickly), but the replacement of the U2s absolutely needs to happen sooner than later.
It'll start with peak hour on the South-NW line - where the greatest congestion issues are now. Depending on funding and how fast we can procure more cars (not only for replacement of U2s, but also growth) the other line will be phased in peak hour 4 car, and eventually to permanent 4 car all the time.
It take it that's for operational savings vs. running more frequent 3-car trains off-peak? I remember they used to run two-car trains sometimes off-peak, did they stop doing that because the effort to couple/decouple the cars is more than the power savings from running a shorter train?
Calgary Transit will be taking part in Doors Open YYC again this year and are offering tours of the Oliver Bowen Maintenance Facility in the northeast on September 28th and 29th.
Recently spent some time in Toronto and rode the TTC's new Rocket subway car which features permanently mated, articulated train set (I.e. you can move between cars and it looks like one really long car).
Is that an option for Calgary? I understand the flexibility in having a motorman's cab on each end of every LRV which makes each car independent but wouldn't you gain more passenger space by having four permanently mated LRV's with only motorman's cabs at each end?
