Red Line reveals new cars
Posted by lfiandaca on April 18, 2010
By Lisa Fiandaca
Despite the CTA’s financial trouble, it is revealing its first new ‘L’ cars in more than 15 years.
The new cars will appear on the Red Line, but transit officials want to try them on all of the CTA’s ‘L’ lines in the months to come to test how they stand up to passengers’ everyday use and abuse according to WBBM .
Due to alternating current technology, these cars will run as a full eight-car train. This new technology makes it impossible to couple them to other CTA trains, all of which use older direct current motors.
“Replacing the oldest rail cars will help to improve the reliability of the fleet, and reduce the expense of maintaining older equipment,” said CTA President Richard Rodriguez to WBBM. The cars will accomplish two goals: improving service and being fiscally responsible.
The New York-style “bowling alley” seats also set the cars apart. The new cars have 38 seats, instead of 39 to 46 on older cars. The decrease in seats allows the new cars to hold many more standing passengers, and have a capacity of 123.
There are LED route signs facing to the outside of each car, and additional LED signs mounted above the doors at either end. They will not have the big flat-screen monitors promised by former CTA President Ron Huberman due to cost.
These ‘L’ cars also will be the first to have computer diagnostics, so that repairs can be made quickly and without a lot of guesswork.
The cost of these new cars is $603.6 million. CTA has sold bonds to finance construction of 406 new cars, and has the option to buy nearly 300 more. The oldest ‘L’ cars being replaced have been in service since Richard Nixon became president, in 1969.
