Passenger Trains > Stadler Wins Order for Metra Battery Electrics

Metra has announced that Stadler has won the contract to supply new battery-electric
multiple units(BEMU) for service on the Rock Island District.  Today's press release
from Metra:
https://metra.com/newsroom/metra-buying-battery-powered-trainsets#:~:text=The%20contract%20wit

8 two car uits are ordered initially.  Options would see 8 more two car units
and 32 intermediate trailers which combined would produce 16 four car sets.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/24 13:30 by milepost20.

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Mechanically a good idea.  Buying more low platform equipment for South Side use a mistake IMHO.   Integrating the Metra Electric and RI Blue Island  services, along with improving service on NICTD between Kensington and Hegewisch--restore 130th St former CSS&SB station now.    Raise platforms at La Salle.  When is Metra going to get serious about ADA?

1/3 Billion for some toys.
Sounds good to me.

One articulated unit of 4 sections has the capacity of at best 2 gallery coaches. How many 2 car trains does Metra-RI run, and what about rush hours ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/24 15:36 by joemvcnj.

Without any meaningful capacity, I mean, just order a bus.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One articulated unit of 4 sections has the
> capacity of at best 2 gallery coaches. How many 2
> car trains does Metra-RI run, and what about rush
> hours ?

They run a lot of off peak trains where only two cars are open.  

Lines like the Beverly Branch of the Rock Island District should be using some sort of MU consists. Though I have never ridden the Beverly Branch of the RI District, by looking at the timetable, I can tell that the stops on that route are so close to each other. I was born and raised in the NYC area and know from lots of personal experience with riding MUs. Many of our three commuter rail agencies in the Tri State area use MUs because many of the stations are a mile or even less from each other. Metro North, for example, is like that on many of its main routes in electrified territory.

Stadler’s factory in Salt Lake is going to stay busy.

Posted from iPhone

Passfanatic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lines like the Beverly Branch of the Rock Island
> District should be using some sort of MU consists.
> Though I have never ridden the Beverly Branch of
> the RI District, by looking at the timetable, I
> can tell that the stops on that route are so close
> to each other. I was born and raised in the NYC
> area and know from lots of personal experience
> with riding MUs. Many of our three commuter rail
> agencies in the Tri State area use MUs because
> many of the stations are a mile or even less from
> each other. Metro North, for example, is like that
> on many of its main routes in electrified
> territory.

When the Beverly Branch was originally built, it was designed that way because of a lack of rapid transit in the area.  Back in the 70s, Metra tried an Italian Fiat Railcar on the line for weekend and off peak services.  It didn't work out.  Probably because it didn't meet the crash worthiness standards for American railcars.  I don't know if there were such standards back then, but running on the section of the mainline from La Salle Street station and then again in Blue Island, if the car were ever in a crash, it would have crumpled like an aluminum beer can. 

atsf121 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Stadler’s factory in Salt Lake is going to stay
> busy.
>
> Posted from iPhone

I'm not sure what they are waiting on for expansion. The Caltrain order is still tying up production space, MARTA order will soon take over completely. With Stadler likely bidding on metro stock for Philadelphia and Chicago along with a likely attempt at the Amtrak LD order they really need to be expanding their footprint. They have more land in Salt Lake City than Siemens has in Sacramento, they just need to use it.

Presently they are building a 10ksqft canteen for their workers, rumor is that a carbody facility is next on the list. By the terms of their tax incentive from the state of Utah they need to triple their footprint by 2029.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One articulated unit of 4 sections has the
> capacity of at best 2 gallery coaches. How many 2
> car trains does Metra-RI run, and what about rush
> hours ?

Don't ask embarassing questions.
All through the pandemic they were operating 8 car trains day and night
on the Joliet line and I assume also on the Beverly branch. Nobody was riding.

If there is only 2 cars worth of business why are they hauling 6 empty cars ?
Apparently there is no wheel or brake wear when a car is empty and the useless
tons requires no fuel to be pulled.

The cars are not semipermanently coupled and stone age pre-boomer roads seemed
able to make cuts on consists.

It is Illinois and it is all about spending money on a system that has outlived its usefulness.

The sad fact is that none of the clowns on the board will be around to answer for their decisions
when the first set goes up in smoke from a battery issue.

Just adding a toilet and tank to a car costs an extra $104,000?  I want that subcontract!  Oh wait, it IS Illinois.

-John

jcaestecker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just adding a toilet and tank to a car costs an
> extra $104,000?  I want that subcontract!  Oh
> wait, it IS Illinois.
>
> -John

Your house's bathroom's total renovation would probably get you for $25K, so on a rail car, $104K is about right. But rail cars cost at least $3 million nowadays, so what's $104K ? 

Passfanatic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lines like the Beverly Branch of the Rock Island
> District should be using some sort of MU consists.
> Though I have never ridden the Beverly Branch of
> the RI District, by looking at the timetable, I
> can tell that the stops on that route are so close
> to each other. I was born and raised in the NYC
> area and know from lots of personal experience
> with riding MUs. Many of our three commuter rail
> agencies in the Tri State area use MUs because
> many of the stations are a mile or even less from
> each other. Metro North, for example, is like that
> on many of its main routes in electrified
> territory.

I rode that branch a few years ago and was taken by how close together the stations really were. Some friends and I all came from out of town to do some fanning there. One of them surmised that if the train were stopped just so, you could enter the train from one station on the rear car and exit the train from another station on the head-end car. Really though, the average speed on that branch had to be in the single digits.

Latest ridership info from Metra:

The stops between Brainerd and Prarie St. are on the proposed route of the Energizer Bunny trains.

Weekdays
https://metra.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/RID%20Dashboard%20February%2012-February%2016%20Weekdays.pdf

Weekends
https://metra.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/RID%20Dashboard%20January%2027-February%2017%20Saturdays.pdf

https://metra.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/RID%20Dashboard%20January%2028-February%2018%20Sundays.pdf

Weekdays off peak and weekends look like they could be be better handled by Uber

As I have mentioned in other posts concerning ridership figures Metra is being evasive.  For example a train may show 10 riders per
car but Metra does not give you any idea if they are working all eight cars in the train or only one.  So are there 10 people on the
train or 80 ?   When asked Metra said they can't tell because the conductors don't keep figures that way.  Off peak I doubt if they ever
work more than three or four cars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/24 10:03 by Englewood.

Passfanatic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lines like the Beverly Branch of the Rock Island
> District should be using some sort of MU consists.
> Though I have never ridden the Beverly Branch of
> the RI District, by looking at the timetable, 

As someone who actually lived along the Branch and actually
controlled trains on the Branch I can add a few observations.

The area along the branch was originally mostly middle class to middle upper class.
In a time before expressways and two car families the stations, generally one-half mile
apart, were walking distance from the commuter's homes. Even today a great selling point
for a house in the area is that it is walking distance from the train.  

During pre-public ownership the idea of cutting every other station would have never made it 
out of an Illinois Commerce Commission hearing.  Under RTA / Metra the politics would never
allow it.  

In my time the schedule allowed three minutes from departing one stop to departing the next stop
one-half mile away. 


Just in, Metra looking to get deeper in tax payers pocket.
The say they are looking at a 730 Million fiscal cliff.
Sh**canning the battery bugs would cut that in half.
For all I care they can get in the EV's and ride rigtht over the cliff.
https://metra.com/stepping-back-cliff



 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/24 11:23 by Englewood.

It's good that many of the trains that head to Joliet aren't running by way of the Beverly Branch but are rather running as an express from La Salle St Terminal to Blue Island and then local stops. It sounds like many of those stops on the Beverly Branch are less than a mile a part from each other. I know that on NJT's Montclair-Boonton Line between Watsessing Avenue Station amd Montclair State University Terminal, there are actually a couple of stations that are 7/10s of a mile from each other(Watsessing Ave and Bloomfield, Glen Ridge and Bay Street, Walnut St and Watchung Ave, and Mountain Ave and Montclair Heights). Between Upper Montclair and Mountain Ave Stations, the distance is a whopping 4/10s of a mile. Many of the trains that serve Montclair are 8-9 cars long and some are probably even 10 cars and they have an ALP-46, ALP-46A or ALP-45DP or ALP-45A as power. While the ALPs can accelerate pretty well, it would have been better to assign Arrow IIIs to all of the electric trains that serve Montclair. Unfortunately Arrow IIIs have never been able to change voltages at Swift Interlocking and will never. It doesn't matter much now as the retirement of the Arrow IIIs is getting closer and closer. Thankfully, the Multilevel MUs will be able to change voltages at Swift Interlocking and I would love to see them run mainly on any electric train on the Mtc-Btn Line.

jcaestecker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just adding a toilet and tank to a car costs an
> extra $104,000?  I want that subcontract!  Oh
> wait, it IS Illinois.
>
> -John

Don't forget the ADA compliance requirements.  Saw the bathroom on the DFW unit during a Stadler shop tour back in 2019 and it was rather spasive for a train restroom.  I was surprised that the aisle around it was wheelchair accessible, it felt kind narrow.

Nathan

Paniolo_man Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> atsf121 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Stadler’s factory in Salt Lake is going to
> stay
> > busy.
> >
> > Posted from iPhone
>
> I'm not sure what they are waiting on for
> expansion. The Caltrain order is still tying up
> production space, MARTA order will soon take over
> completely. With Stadler likely bidding on metro
> stock for Philadelphia and Chicago along with a
> likely attempt at the Amtrak LD order they really
> need to be expanding their footprint. They have
> more land in Salt Lake City than Siemens has in
> Sacramento, they just need to use it.
>
> Presently they are building a 10ksqft canteen for
> their workers, rumor is that a carbody facility is
> next on the list. By the terms of their tax
> incentive from the state of Utah they need to
> triple their footprint by 2029.

Didn't know about the tax incentive rules, that is interesting.  I know they've expanded once since I did the tour in 2019, and it was for the MARTA order - a few of those cars were visible during the openhouse last summer.  I haven't been up there since, will have to swing by and see what's changing with the canteen construction.  There is a lot of space they can still build on, that's for sure.

Nathan

60 miles range, allegedly.  Curious about real range in the cold with the heaters blowing.  Maybe 30 miles.