Mayor Edwin M. Lee on Jan. 13 joined by members of the Board of Supervisors and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced a major expansion of Muni’s fleet by purchasing an additional 40 Siemens light rail vehicles to improve reliability and safety. In addition to the 175 Muni next generation of light rail vehicles approved last year, this purchase will allow Muni to address capacity needs as San Francisco’s population and Muni ridership continue to grow, further improve transit reliability, and bolster the economy since Siemens will manufacture the vehicles in their Sacramento facility with the first cars operational by the end of 2016.
“Today, we are accelerating improvements to Muni by expanding San Francisco’s light rail fleet while we also replace the entire fleet with new, state of the art Siemens vehicles,” said Lee. “Expanding the fleet will make our City’s public transportation system more reliable, safer, easier to maintain, and ready to meet the demands of a growing City and growing ridership.”
The SFMTA Board of Directors voted last week to proceed with the contract option to purchase these 40 new light rail vehicles (LRV). Anticipated final actions by the SFMTA Board and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in the coming weeks will secure funding.
The 40 LRVs, including engineering and other soft costs, will total $210 million. The SFMTA will seek up to $153 million in California cap-and-trade funds and will seek funding authority from the SFMTA Board of Directors for $57 million. In the event cap and trade funds request is not met, the MTC is expected to partner with the SFMTA to guarantee funds to bridge the gap. This is the first of two options for an additional 85 cars, bringing the overall total to 260 cars.
The advancement in purchase of the additional trains comes just four months after the awarding of the initial contract with Siemens for $648 million to add 175 new and improved Muni light rail vehicles to the fleet that will improve reliability and safety. The contract, which was unanimously supported by the Board of Supervisors, is the largest light rail contract to be awarded in modern U.S. history. It will help shape the future of San Francisco’s public transportation as the City prioritizes improving the Muni fleet and investing in transportation infrastructure across the San Francisco.
“Purchasing new Muni vehicles is the most significant thing we can do to improve transit service. These new Siemens vehicles will last 10 times longer, than the LRVs currently on our streets,” said SFMTA Board Chairman Tom Nolan. “The existing LRVs have failures every 5,500 miles. Conversely, the new trains are projected to travel up to 59,000 miles before the first needed repair. Today’s leap forward in our transportation infrastructure will create a faster, more reliable transit system for the people of San Francisco.”
The SFMTA is replacing and rehabilitating its entire fleet of buses and trains to provide a cleaner, quieter, more comfortable ride, with less vehicle downtime for repairs. This will include replacing the entire bus fleet over the next five years in addition to doubling the size of the rail fleet. Muni has already received 112 new hybrid buses, which are in service, and a prototype of Muni’s new electric trolley bus is expected to hit the street next month.
"We congratulate Mayor Lee and San Francisco as they continue to enhance mobility in their city,” said Michael Cahill, president of Siemens Rolling Stock. “Siemens is thrilled to extend its technology partnership with San Francisco and provide modern light rail trains to the more than 700,000 passengers who use San Francisco’s transportation system.”
Muni’s new LRV model, called the S200 SF Light Rail Vehicle is a hybrid creation, combining the best elements from both Siemens’ successful high-floor and low-floor light rail platforms, more than 1,300 of which are currently in operation. These vehicles vastly exceed the reliability targets required by the agency and provide an improved, more reliable passenger door system with fewer moving parts that will also require less maintenance.
The safety of surrounding traffic, including people walking, bicycling and driving, is at the core of the S200 SF design. The S200 SF has exemplary driver visibility to minimize blind spots for safe in-street operation, and bright LED lighting and expressive exterior design to ensure more attention from street level. The hydraulic brakes also have the shortest reaction time possible, shortening the brake distance.
Three different car designs—The Presidio, The Skyline and The Gate – were being considered. Public input on key features of the new trains was collected last year. The final interior layout was determined by public process following input from stakeholders, such as the riding public and various policy groups. The Skyline design was selected. Each new car will have a full capacity of 226 passengers.
