Board approved procurement of 7k cars

[Sand Box John]

Metro gets OK to seek new rail car design

November 21, 2008 - 9:31am
Adam Tuss, WTOP Radio

[LandoverDivision]

Nice. So when will these cars actually be in service?

[C40LF_2464]

Nice. So when will these cars actually be in service?

I heard around early spring 09 or summer 09

[Tristan]

I don't know what you heard and who you heard it from but Spring 2009 is in like 4 months.  That's absolutely impossible.  Railcars generally take +/- 5 years from order to delivery.

[Sand Box John]

See page 11 of 7000 Series Railcar RAC Overview( 1.06 MB PDF file).
Move the day for the beginning of RFP (Request for Proposal) from the date on schedule (early July of 2009 to end of November of 2008).

Note: WMATA's fiscal Year begins on July 1.

Also see this document presented to the Board of Director 11 20 2008
Adoption of 7000 Series Rail Car Design (1.17 MB PDF file)

[Tritransit Area]

Wow - the 7000s will sure be different.  It's very interesting that they are going to a 4 car semi-permanent set rather than the typical married pair.  However, I'll sure miss those comfy seats and the carpet in the cars.

However, it's important to have a modern fleet, and these sure will be modern when they first make their appearance in 2011/2012.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

7000s will be in pairs, they just won't have cabs in the B cars and the trains will need to be sent out on the mainline with an A car at each end.

[Sand Box John]

Tritransit Area
Wow - the 7000s will sure be different.  It's very interesting that they are going to a 4 car semi-permanent set rather than the typical married pair.  However, I'll sure miss those comfy seats and the carpet in the cars.

WMATA is not abandoning the married pair configuration. These cars are not going to be 4 car semi-permanent set. The 7k cars are married pairs with no cabs in the B car. The reason for maintaining the married pair configuration is all of the hoists and lifts in the shop facilities are designed to accommodate the maintenance of married pairs.

The primary difference between the 7k cars and the existing cars in the fleet is the B car will have no cab and the bodies are stainless steel. The cab less car in the married pair will have a coupler just like the A cars. Other differences is the door at the front ends of the cars are roughly 2' closer to the center of the cars. This was done to comply with a crash worthiness recommendation made by NTSB as the result of the Shady Grove wreck on 01 06 1996. The cars will also have two side destination signs like the 1k cars originally had.

However, it's important to have a modern fleet, and these sure will be modern when they first make their appearance in 2011/2012.

These cars will have guts (propulsion, braking, train control and HVAC systems) that are basically same as the newest cars in the fleet.

What I found interesting is the rendering in the PDF file shows red LED on the destination signs. These might be RGB LED, this would allow the destinations displayed on the signs to be displayed using the appropriate color.