US Standard Light Rail Vehicle
Encyclopedia
The US Standard Light Rail Vehicle was an attempt at a standardized light rail
vehicle promoted by the United States Urban Mass Transportation Administration
(UMTA) and built by Boeing Vertol
in the 1970s. Part of a series of defense conversion projects in the waning days of the Vietnam War
, the LRV was seen as both a replacement for older PCC streetcar
s in many cities and as a catalyst for new cities to construct light rail systems. The USSLRV was marketed as and is popularly known as the Boeing LRV (not to be confused with their prior lunar roving vehicles
for NASA
) and is usually referred to as such.
were looking for modern replacements for their aging rolling stock. When the San Francisco Municipal Railway
(Muni) in San Francisco, California
, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
(MBTA) in Boston
, Massachusetts
, were looking at building new vehicles or import existing European vehicles, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration
(UMTA) created a committee (the BSF Committee) to design a standardized light rail car. At the same time, a flood of defense conversion projects came to fruition as the result of government encouragement to help keep defense suppliers busy as the Vietnam War was coming to an end. UMTA, under President Nixon's "Buy America" program, would not fund any transit vehicles which were not produced in the United States, nor approved by the Administration.
By 1973, UMTA awarded Boeing-Vertol of Philadelphia, PA
the contract to produce the LRV at a cost of approximately $300,000 per car. Muni
initially ordered 80 cars, and the MBTA ordered 150. Later, the orders were expanded to 100 and 175 respectively. The first demonstrator model was produced in 1975, and was intended to be an early Muni car. The LRVs entered revenue service on December 30, 1976 on the MBTA's Green Line "D" Branch; the first regular runs on the Muni system came in 1979 in the months leading to the opening of the Muni Metro
. The LRV was also nearly purchased by Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in Philadelphia and Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
(GCRTA) in Cleveland, Ohio
, however those companies later struck down their deals and went their own ways, buying their light rail cars (to their own unique designs) from Kawasaki
and Breda
(who, ironically, later built cars that replaced the Boeings in both Boston and San Francisco), respectively.
The car body shells and truck frames were built by Tokyu Car Corporation
, and the motors provided by Garrett, with the components assembled at the Boeing plant in Ridley, Pennsylvania.
-Derailment
s on tight curves, which would seriously damage the car's articulation section, itself problematic as Boeing designed its own articulated section so as to avoid obtaining a license from overseas builders such as Duewag.
-Shorting of electrical systems, premature failures in the car's motors and propulsion system. Boeing used an advanced chopper
control system for the cars as insisted by the federal government. While chopper systems have been implemented successfully in many subway, light rail, and trackless trolley systems, the systems installed in Boeing's cars were found to be overly complicated for the transit systems' use.
-LRV's overly complex "plug door
s" failing to operate properly. These problems caused the cars to have a very low mean time between failure
s. In Boston, this led to the LRV fleet availability typically being less than 50% of the total number of cars on the property for the first several years of service. The MBTA instituted a PCC rebuilding program to augment the LRV fleet and maintain Green Line service. In San Francisco, the problems with the LRVs led to the Muni Metro not reaching its full potential until 1982.
-Some car shells were shipped to Boeing as deck cargo, exposed to the ocean air, and spent a further amount of time outside the Boeing plant before being assembled and delivered. As a result, these cars had become badly deteriorated after a mere decade of service.
In Boston, the LRV situation was becoming a major political and public relations nightmare. The MBTA was still accepting new cars from Boeing-Vertol, but the cars were falling out of service faster than the MBTA's maintenance staff could repair them. Additionally, the MBTA could not acquire replacement parts fast enough to repair the disabled LRVs. In an effort to keep as many LRVs operating as possible, MBTA maintenance crews began cannibalizing some of the disabled cars for replacement parts. To help prevent the riding public from seeing the sheer number of brand-new, but heavily cannibalized LRVs, several of the cars were hidden around the system where the public was not likely to find them. A major newspaper story emerged when a reporter and a photographer managed to get into a section of the Green Line's subway which was not in use at the time, and found it chock-full of cannibalized cars which had been abandoned in the tunnel. The MBTA had been towing the cars into the subway during the middle of the night when the subway was closed to the public. The story and photographs brought the problems with the LRV into the public eye for the first time. After the story broke, out of service LRVs began to appear in several storage yards which were easily viewed by the public, though this may have simply been due to the ever increasing number of disabled cars.
In 1979, the MBTA successfully sued Boeing-Vertol for financial damages, the cost of repairs and modifications to several cars, and the ability to reject the delivery of the last 40 cars of their 175 car order. The rejected MBTA units sat in storage at Boeing-Vertol's plant for a short time, until Muni decided to purchase some of them. The first of the "Boston" cars which Muni purchased was to replace one of their LRVs which had been damaged in a mishap, and was deemed beyond economic repair. After the successful conversion of that first car, Muni ordered an additional 30 LRVs from the rejected Boston units to further bolster their fleet. The "Boston" cars in San Francisco were modified to meet the needs of the Muni Metro, but were easily distinguished by the wood grain interior parts at the operator's cab and articulation section, which were in stark contrast to the yellow-ish orange color on the original Muni cars.
In 1983, the last of the LRVs at Boeing-Vertol's facility were finally delivered, when the MBTA took delivery of the remaining nine cars of the group which they had previously rejected. They also took delivery of five cannibalized "shells" of cars which were delivered to the MBTA earlier in the 1970s and subsequently returned to Boeing in 1979.
Other problems with the LRV's arose because the car was a "compromise" car. Both Boston and San Francisco had very different needs for the LRV: Boston needing a more traditional streetcar, while San Francisco needed a more specialized car for their Muni Metro subway.
The San Francisco cars needed stairways for ground-level boarding on the surface parts of their trips, but their stairways needed to convert for high-platform operation in the Muni Metro subway. This became a passenger flow problem in San Francisco. Muni could only use the two center doors on the LRVs in the subway, as the front end of the car curved away from the platforms too much to allow passengers to safely board or alight the cars. The narrow front end was required by Boston so that the LRV could navigate the tight curves in their 1897-vintage subway.
Similarly, Muni's need for the high-platform operation in the Muni Metro subway required the design of the trouble-prone "plug-type" doors. Unfortunately for the MBTA, they had to deal with these difficult to maintain doors until the 1990s when all passenger cars were retrofitted with more reliable bi-fold doors.
The problems of the LRV led their purchasers quickly looking for replacements and supplements to their fleet. After the MBTA sued Boeing-Vertol, they were free to make their own modifications to the cars. Several systems were upgraded or improved. Slowly but surely, cannibalized cars were brought into the MBTA shops being prepped for service.
The MBTA also started "splicing" damaged cars together. Cars 3454 and 3478 had been involved in a high-speed, rear-end collision. The two ends of the cars which made contact were severely damaged. The MBTA's maintenance crews brought the two cars into the shops, and later, car 3478 (consisting of 3478A and 3454B) returned to active duty. Car 3454 (consisting of the damaged 3454A and 3478B) was pushed out into the dead storage yard for future disposition. The experience gained in this type of repair laid the ground for several other such cars being returned to revenue service. Eventually, the MBTA's maintenance staff got the active fleet to around 114 cars in the early 1980s.
The MBTA also modified 76 LRVs with roof-mounted air conditioning units. The original units supplied by Boeing-Vertol were mounted under the car, and continually sucked in dirt and debris from under the car. The MBTA also simplified the plug doors by adding a wider rubber strip, and eliminating the recycling circuit from the doors.
It was clear that the LRV was no longer a part of the MBTA's long-term future. By the mid-1980s, the MBTA had contracted with Kinki Sharyo
of Japan for their new Type 7 car. When the first Type 7s entered service in 1986, after successful testing, burn-in, and operator training, the new cars quickly assumed most of the base service on the Green Line.
In order to make room for the new cars, the MBTA instituted its first LRV scrapping program beginning in 1987. By the end of 1988, nineteen cars had been removed from the property, most of which had been in dead storage since the late 1970s, and the remainder were victims of major collisions or derailment damage.
San Francisco began retiring their LRVs in 1995 after the first of their replacements (the LRV2) arrived from Italian manufacturer Breda
. The newer Breda cars were more like what Muni wanted for their Muni Metro back in the early 1970s, before the design of the Boeing LRV.
Boston also turned to Breda for their new Type 8, low-floor car. The Type 8 was supposed to make the Green Line compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act
. To help maintain Green Line service until the Type 8s were expected to be in service and to replace Type 7s damaged in accidents, the MBTA took delivery of an additional 20 Type 7s from Kinki Sharyo in 1997. Additionally, the MBTA contracted with Amerail of Hornell, NY to completely rehabilitate 55 LRVs for extended service. The LRV rehab was intended to add an additional three to five years of service to the cars, and eliminate the trouble plagued plug doors once and for all by installing traditional folding doors.
Unfortunately, the new Type 8s have been experiencing LRV-type problems, especially derailments. All of the Type 8s were originally supposed to be in service by the end of 2001, but as of 2007, the fleet is only now nearing its final deliveries. As of 2010, all cars have been accepted and are now in service.
At the end of 2001, Muni retired the last of their LRVs after the LRV2s had proven their reliability on the Muni Metro system. The MBTA was originally expected to have retired their LRVs around the same time, but the Type 8 problems have added additional years to the fleet.
The MBTA's last revenue run of LRVs was made on March 16, 2007 on the Riverside Line by cars 3485 and 3499. The MBTA continues to operate three LRV work cars:
Boeing LRVs 3468, 3480, 3485, 3499, 3514, & 3520 were sold to the US Government in Pubelo, Colorado for testing with real-life scenarios. Two of the Muni cars have been saved in museums, one at the Oregon Electric Railway Museum
and the other at the Western Railway Museum
, while two are stored in different conditions, one at the railway yard at Market and Duboce near the U.S. Mint, and one at Geneva Division. The Seashore Trolley Museum
had inquired about acquiring plug-door-equipped LRV 3444 for their collection, but has since not taken the car because the car was missing several essential components, including one of the trucks. 3444 was not in operating condition and Seashore wanted an operating example, as well as the car rusting heavily, 3444 was later scrapped in 2005. Seashore acquired rehabbed car 3424, which left the MBTA's Riverside Yard on July 9, 2009 and arrived safely at STM later that day. Seashore Trolley Museum is considering acquiring unrehabbed car 3417, now a part of the MBTA work fleet, for the collection.
In 2002 the city of Manchester
, UK was host to the British Commonwealth games. Manchester has its own LRT system named Metrolink
. As many of the athletic stadiums were on the route of the LRT capacity problems were foreseen, and a short term solution was required. Manchester Metrolink approached Muni about the possibility of buying redundant Boeing LRVs for use on Metrolink. Two units were purchased for US$
200–US$500 for initial evaluation and shipped to the UK. One unit was sent to the UK Railways Inspectorate in Derby, to ensure the LRV met UK road and rail safety standards, and another to Metrolink in Manchester for conversion evaluation.
Units 1214, 1219, 1220, 1221, 1234, 1249, 1268, 1288, 1305, 1308, 1312, and 1327 were stored pending the sale.
Investigations concluded the trams were not in line with UK safety standards (in fact they would suffer more damage than a UK car in the event of accident) due to their height and width. Additionally other problems were found including the drivers seat being on the opposite side of the road (UK roads drive from the left), Conversion to remove ticket sales (Tickets are sold from the stops before boarding). LRT system requirements dictate the separation of the driver from direct passenger contact for road safety reasons. As the driver was next to the door (in order to receive fares), this wasn't possible.
Given this list of changes for such a short term solution, even though practically free to purchase the Boeing LRV was not selected. The remaining units in storage in San Francisco are now scrapped.
It was however noted that their ability to manage sharp curves and fast acceleration on steep hills would have been valuable in the city center of Manchester.
Today these cars 1226 and 1326 remain intact at Derby and Manchester. The Muni trams would have fit well in Manchester as their color scheme and Muni logo were almost exact matches of the old Greater Manchester Transport color schemes (Orange and White exterior, and Wooden finish interior). Due to the large number of railway and road transport schemes in the area, the Muni trams in Manchester may end in preservation.
called State of the Art Cars (SOAC). SOAC was also funded by UMTA and managed by Boeing Vertol. The SOAC cars were built by St. Louis Car Company
and made demonstration runs in several cities, including New York
, Boston
, Chicago
, Cleveland, and Philadelphia. The Seashore Trolley Museum
acquired the cars when the test program ended and they are on display on the museum grounds.
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
vehicle promoted by the United States Urban Mass Transportation Administration
Federal Transit Administration
The Federal Transit Administration is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administrations within the DOT...
(UMTA) and built by Boeing Vertol
Boeing Helicopters
Boeing Rotorcraft Systems is a US aircraft manufacturer, now part of Boeing Defense, Space & Security...
in the 1970s. Part of a series of defense conversion projects in the waning days of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, the LRV was seen as both a replacement for older PCC streetcar
PCC streetcar
The PCC streetcar design was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II was licensed for use elsewhere in the world...
s in many cities and as a catalyst for new cities to construct light rail systems. The USSLRV was marketed as and is popularly known as the Boeing LRV (not to be confused with their prior lunar roving vehicles
Lunar rover
The Lunar Roving Vehicle or lunar rover was a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program during 1971 and 1972...
for NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
) and is usually referred to as such.
History
The original concept of the LRV came to fruition in the late 1960s as the limited number of cities with PCCs in North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
were looking for modern replacements for their aging rolling stock. When the San Francisco Municipal Railway
San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
(Muni) in San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...
(MBTA) in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, were looking at building new vehicles or import existing European vehicles, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration
Federal Transit Administration
The Federal Transit Administration is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administrations within the DOT...
(UMTA) created a committee (the BSF Committee) to design a standardized light rail car. At the same time, a flood of defense conversion projects came to fruition as the result of government encouragement to help keep defense suppliers busy as the Vietnam War was coming to an end. UMTA, under President Nixon's "Buy America" program, would not fund any transit vehicles which were not produced in the United States, nor approved by the Administration.
By 1973, UMTA awarded Boeing-Vertol of Philadelphia, PA
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
the contract to produce the LRV at a cost of approximately $300,000 per car. Muni
San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
initially ordered 80 cars, and the MBTA ordered 150. Later, the orders were expanded to 100 and 175 respectively. The first demonstrator model was produced in 1975, and was intended to be an early Muni car. The LRVs entered revenue service on December 30, 1976 on the MBTA's Green Line "D" Branch; the first regular runs on the Muni system came in 1979 in the months leading to the opening of the Muni Metro
Muni Metro
Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway , a division of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency...
. The LRV was also nearly purchased by Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in Philadelphia and Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is the public transit agency for Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and the surrounding suburbs of Cuyahoga County. RTA is the largest transit agency in Ohio, providing over 44 million trips to residents and visitors of the Cleveland area in 2010...
(GCRTA) in Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, however those companies later struck down their deals and went their own ways, buying their light rail cars (to their own unique designs) from Kawasaki
Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Company
is the rolling stock production division of Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Since beginning operations in 1906, the company has produced more than 90,000 railroad vehicles.- Products :...
and Breda
Società Italiana Ernesto Breda
Società Italiana Ernesto Breda, more usually referred to simply as Breda was an Italian mechanical manufacturing company founded by Ernesto Breda in Milan in 1886. The firm originally manufactured locomotives and other railway machinery, but later branched out into armaments and aircraft. In 1962,...
(who, ironically, later built cars that replaced the Boeings in both Boston and San Francisco), respectively.
The car body shells and truck frames were built by Tokyu Car Corporation
Tokyu Car Corporation
is a manufacturer of heavy rail cars in Japan. The company is based in Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama, Japan, and a member of Tokyu Group. Tokyu Car manufactures rail vehicles not only for Tokyu Corporation but for other Japanese operators, including various Japan Railways Group companies and...
, and the motors provided by Garrett, with the components assembled at the Boeing plant in Ridley, Pennsylvania.
Differences
While Boston and San Francisco bought their cars at the same time, and they appear identical externally, the cars have differences. These include:- Doors - The doors, at first, were essentially the same. However, Muni's cars have moveable steps, which can be lowered for street-level boarding, or raised for boarding from high-level platforms, such as those in the subway. The Boston cars do not have this feature, and must be boarded from street-level. These doors proved troublesome, and MBTA eventually replaced them with bi-folding doors, further distinguishing them from those of Muni's.
- Appliances - MBTA's LRV's had been fitted with air-conditioning units for Boston's humid climate. Muni's cars feature more specialized equipment for subway operations, including cab signaling, but provide forced air ventilation in lieu of air conditioning.
- Interior styling - The "Boston" cars feature wood grain interior parts at the operator's cab and articulation section, while Muni cars have a yellow-ish orange color interior. However, a small number of Muni's cars actually have the same wood grain interior as Boston's. This is because those cars were originally built for Boston, who rejected and returned them to Boeing. Muni then bought these cars, had their air-conditioners removed, and fitted with all the features exclusive to their fleet. The wood grain in these cars is thus the only feature that distinguishes these cars from those originally made for Muni.
- Capacity - San Francisco's cars seated 68, while the Boston cars originally seated 52, though the MBTA later had 4 seats removed to better accommodate wheelchairs.
Problems
From their earliest days of service, the LRV was prone to numerous problems including, but not limited to;-Derailment
Derailment
A derailment is an accident on a railway or tramway in which a rail vehicle, or part or all of a train, leaves the tracks on which it is travelling, with consequent damage and in many cases injury and/or death....
s on tight curves, which would seriously damage the car's articulation section, itself problematic as Boeing designed its own articulated section so as to avoid obtaining a license from overseas builders such as Duewag.
-Shorting of electrical systems, premature failures in the car's motors and propulsion system. Boeing used an advanced chopper
Chopper (electronics)
A chopper circuit is used to refer to numerous types of electronic switching devices and circuits. The term has become somewhat ill-defined, and as a result is much less used nowadays than it was perhaps 30 or more years ago....
control system for the cars as insisted by the federal government. While chopper systems have been implemented successfully in many subway, light rail, and trackless trolley systems, the systems installed in Boeing's cars were found to be overly complicated for the transit systems' use.
-LRV's overly complex "plug door
Plug door
A plug door is a door designed to seal itself by taking advantage of pressure difference on its two sides and is typically used on pressurised aircraft...
s" failing to operate properly. These problems caused the cars to have a very low mean time between failure
Mean time between failure
Mean time between failures is the predicted elapsed time between inherent failures of a system during operation. MTBF can be calculated as the arithmetic mean time between failures of a system. The MTBF is typically part of a model that assumes the failed system is immediately repaired , as a...
s. In Boston, this led to the LRV fleet availability typically being less than 50% of the total number of cars on the property for the first several years of service. The MBTA instituted a PCC rebuilding program to augment the LRV fleet and maintain Green Line service. In San Francisco, the problems with the LRVs led to the Muni Metro not reaching its full potential until 1982.
-Some car shells were shipped to Boeing as deck cargo, exposed to the ocean air, and spent a further amount of time outside the Boeing plant before being assembled and delivered. As a result, these cars had become badly deteriorated after a mere decade of service.
In Boston, the LRV situation was becoming a major political and public relations nightmare. The MBTA was still accepting new cars from Boeing-Vertol, but the cars were falling out of service faster than the MBTA's maintenance staff could repair them. Additionally, the MBTA could not acquire replacement parts fast enough to repair the disabled LRVs. In an effort to keep as many LRVs operating as possible, MBTA maintenance crews began cannibalizing some of the disabled cars for replacement parts. To help prevent the riding public from seeing the sheer number of brand-new, but heavily cannibalized LRVs, several of the cars were hidden around the system where the public was not likely to find them. A major newspaper story emerged when a reporter and a photographer managed to get into a section of the Green Line's subway which was not in use at the time, and found it chock-full of cannibalized cars which had been abandoned in the tunnel. The MBTA had been towing the cars into the subway during the middle of the night when the subway was closed to the public. The story and photographs brought the problems with the LRV into the public eye for the first time. After the story broke, out of service LRVs began to appear in several storage yards which were easily viewed by the public, though this may have simply been due to the ever increasing number of disabled cars.
In 1979, the MBTA successfully sued Boeing-Vertol for financial damages, the cost of repairs and modifications to several cars, and the ability to reject the delivery of the last 40 cars of their 175 car order. The rejected MBTA units sat in storage at Boeing-Vertol's plant for a short time, until Muni decided to purchase some of them. The first of the "Boston" cars which Muni purchased was to replace one of their LRVs which had been damaged in a mishap, and was deemed beyond economic repair. After the successful conversion of that first car, Muni ordered an additional 30 LRVs from the rejected Boston units to further bolster their fleet. The "Boston" cars in San Francisco were modified to meet the needs of the Muni Metro, but were easily distinguished by the wood grain interior parts at the operator's cab and articulation section, which were in stark contrast to the yellow-ish orange color on the original Muni cars.
In 1983, the last of the LRVs at Boeing-Vertol's facility were finally delivered, when the MBTA took delivery of the remaining nine cars of the group which they had previously rejected. They also took delivery of five cannibalized "shells" of cars which were delivered to the MBTA earlier in the 1970s and subsequently returned to Boeing in 1979.
Other problems with the LRV's arose because the car was a "compromise" car. Both Boston and San Francisco had very different needs for the LRV: Boston needing a more traditional streetcar, while San Francisco needed a more specialized car for their Muni Metro subway.
The San Francisco cars needed stairways for ground-level boarding on the surface parts of their trips, but their stairways needed to convert for high-platform operation in the Muni Metro subway. This became a passenger flow problem in San Francisco. Muni could only use the two center doors on the LRVs in the subway, as the front end of the car curved away from the platforms too much to allow passengers to safely board or alight the cars. The narrow front end was required by Boston so that the LRV could navigate the tight curves in their 1897-vintage subway.
Similarly, Muni's need for the high-platform operation in the Muni Metro subway required the design of the trouble-prone "plug-type" doors. Unfortunately for the MBTA, they had to deal with these difficult to maintain doors until the 1990s when all passenger cars were retrofitted with more reliable bi-fold doors.
Replacements and retirement
The MBTA also started "splicing" damaged cars together. Cars 3454 and 3478 had been involved in a high-speed, rear-end collision. The two ends of the cars which made contact were severely damaged. The MBTA's maintenance crews brought the two cars into the shops, and later, car 3478 (consisting of 3478A and 3454B) returned to active duty. Car 3454 (consisting of the damaged 3454A and 3478B) was pushed out into the dead storage yard for future disposition. The experience gained in this type of repair laid the ground for several other such cars being returned to revenue service. Eventually, the MBTA's maintenance staff got the active fleet to around 114 cars in the early 1980s.
The MBTA also modified 76 LRVs with roof-mounted air conditioning units. The original units supplied by Boeing-Vertol were mounted under the car, and continually sucked in dirt and debris from under the car. The MBTA also simplified the plug doors by adding a wider rubber strip, and eliminating the recycling circuit from the doors.
It was clear that the LRV was no longer a part of the MBTA's long-term future. By the mid-1980s, the MBTA had contracted with Kinki Sharyo
Kinki Sharyo
is an Osaka, Japan-based manufacturer of railroad vehicles. It is an affiliate company of Kintetsu Corporation.In business since 1920 and renamed The Kinki Sharyo Co., Ltd in 1945...
of Japan for their new Type 7 car. When the first Type 7s entered service in 1986, after successful testing, burn-in, and operator training, the new cars quickly assumed most of the base service on the Green Line.
In order to make room for the new cars, the MBTA instituted its first LRV scrapping program beginning in 1987. By the end of 1988, nineteen cars had been removed from the property, most of which had been in dead storage since the late 1970s, and the remainder were victims of major collisions or derailment damage.
San Francisco began retiring their LRVs in 1995 after the first of their replacements (the LRV2) arrived from Italian manufacturer Breda
Ansaldobreda, S.P.A.
AnsaldoBreda S.p.A. is a rail transport engineering company based in Italy. The company designs and manufactures railway and mass transit vehicles.-Company details:...
. The newer Breda cars were more like what Muni wanted for their Muni Metro back in the early 1970s, before the design of the Boeing LRV.
Boston also turned to Breda for their new Type 8, low-floor car. The Type 8 was supposed to make the Green Line compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, and later amended with changes effective January 1, 2009....
. To help maintain Green Line service until the Type 8s were expected to be in service and to replace Type 7s damaged in accidents, the MBTA took delivery of an additional 20 Type 7s from Kinki Sharyo in 1997. Additionally, the MBTA contracted with Amerail of Hornell, NY to completely rehabilitate 55 LRVs for extended service. The LRV rehab was intended to add an additional three to five years of service to the cars, and eliminate the trouble plagued plug doors once and for all by installing traditional folding doors.
Unfortunately, the new Type 8s have been experiencing LRV-type problems, especially derailments. All of the Type 8s were originally supposed to be in service by the end of 2001, but as of 2007, the fleet is only now nearing its final deliveries. As of 2010, all cars have been accepted and are now in service.
At the end of 2001, Muni retired the last of their LRVs after the LRV2s had proven their reliability on the Muni Metro system. The MBTA was originally expected to have retired their LRVs around the same time, but the Type 8 problems have added additional years to the fleet.
The MBTA's last revenue run of LRVs was made on March 16, 2007 on the Riverside Line by cars 3485 and 3499. The MBTA continues to operate three LRV work cars:
- Rerailer car 3417
- Track geometry car 3448
- Maintenance of Way car 3453
Boeing LRVs 3468, 3480, 3485, 3499, 3514, & 3520 were sold to the US Government in Pubelo, Colorado for testing with real-life scenarios. Two of the Muni cars have been saved in museums, one at the Oregon Electric Railway Museum
Oregon Electric Railway Museum
The Oregon Electric Railway Museum is the largest streetcar/trolley museum in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It is owned and operated by the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society and is located in Brooks, Oregon, on the grounds of Antique Powerland.The original museum opened in...
and the other at the Western Railway Museum
Western Railway Museum
The Western Railway Museum, in Solano County, California is located on Highway 12 between Rio Vista and Suisun. The museum is built along the former mainline of theSacramento Northern Railway...
, while two are stored in different conditions, one at the railway yard at Market and Duboce near the U.S. Mint, and one at Geneva Division. The Seashore Trolley Museum
Seashore Trolley Museum
The Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's oldest and largest museum of mass transit vehicles....
had inquired about acquiring plug-door-equipped LRV 3444 for their collection, but has since not taken the car because the car was missing several essential components, including one of the trucks. 3444 was not in operating condition and Seashore wanted an operating example, as well as the car rusting heavily, 3444 was later scrapped in 2005. Seashore acquired rehabbed car 3424, which left the MBTA's Riverside Yard on July 9, 2009 and arrived safely at STM later that day. Seashore Trolley Museum is considering acquiring unrehabbed car 3417, now a part of the MBTA work fleet, for the collection.
In 2002 the city of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, UK was host to the British Commonwealth games. Manchester has its own LRT system named Metrolink
Manchester Metrolink
Metrolink is a light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. It consists of four lines which converge in Manchester city centre and terminate in Bury, Altrincham, Eccles and Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The system is owned by Transport for Greater Manchester and operated under contract by RATP Group...
. As many of the athletic stadiums were on the route of the LRT capacity problems were foreseen, and a short term solution was required. Manchester Metrolink approached Muni about the possibility of buying redundant Boeing LRVs for use on Metrolink. Two units were purchased for US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
200–US$500 for initial evaluation and shipped to the UK. One unit was sent to the UK Railways Inspectorate in Derby, to ensure the LRV met UK road and rail safety standards, and another to Metrolink in Manchester for conversion evaluation.
Units 1214, 1219, 1220, 1221, 1234, 1249, 1268, 1288, 1305, 1308, 1312, and 1327 were stored pending the sale.
Investigations concluded the trams were not in line with UK safety standards (in fact they would suffer more damage than a UK car in the event of accident) due to their height and width. Additionally other problems were found including the drivers seat being on the opposite side of the road (UK roads drive from the left), Conversion to remove ticket sales (Tickets are sold from the stops before boarding). LRT system requirements dictate the separation of the driver from direct passenger contact for road safety reasons. As the driver was next to the door (in order to receive fares), this wasn't possible.
Given this list of changes for such a short term solution, even though practically free to purchase the Boeing LRV was not selected. The remaining units in storage in San Francisco are now scrapped.
It was however noted that their ability to manage sharp curves and fast acceleration on steep hills would have been valuable in the city center of Manchester.
Today these cars 1226 and 1326 remain intact at Derby and Manchester. The Muni trams would have fit well in Manchester as their color scheme and Muni logo were almost exact matches of the old Greater Manchester Transport color schemes (Orange and White exterior, and Wooden finish interior). Due to the large number of railway and road transport schemes in the area, the Muni trams in Manchester may end in preservation.
State of the Art Cars
There was also a similar program for rapid transitRapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
called State of the Art Cars (SOAC). SOAC was also funded by UMTA and managed by Boeing Vertol. The SOAC cars were built by St. Louis Car Company
St. Louis Car Company
The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887–1973, based in St. Louis, Missouri.-History:...
and made demonstration runs in several cities, including New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Cleveland, and Philadelphia. The Seashore Trolley Museum
Seashore Trolley Museum
The Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's oldest and largest museum of mass transit vehicles....
acquired the cars when the test program ended and they are on display on the museum grounds.
See also
- Canadian Light Rail VehicleCanadian Light Rail VehicleThe Canadian Light Rail Vehicle ' is a type of streetcar that is used by the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Canada.-Background:...
- Articulated Light Rail Vehicle
- PCC streetcarPCC streetcarThe PCC streetcar design was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II was licensed for use elsewhere in the world...
- Kinki SharyoKinki Sharyois an Osaka, Japan-based manufacturer of railroad vehicles. It is an affiliate company of Kintetsu Corporation.In business since 1920 and renamed The Kinki Sharyo Co., Ltd in 1945...
- Ansaldobreda, S.P.A.Ansaldobreda, S.P.A.AnsaldoBreda S.p.A. is a rail transport engineering company based in Italy. The company designs and manufactures railway and mass transit vehicles.-Company details:...
External links
- Boston's Green Line Crisis A summary of the problems faced by the MBTA with Boeing
- 1975 article on rollout of USSLRV
- MBTA USSLRV specs
- 1977 ad for the USSLRV (Defunct as of 8/09)
- SOAC1 & 2 at Seashore Trolley Museum
- State of the Art Cars
- MBTA Vehicle Inventory Page
