Rolling Stock
In January 2004, CATS began the process of accepting bids for construction of the system's vehicles. Original estimates for the vehicles was $3.5 million per car with the firms Bombardier, Siemens and Kinki Sharyo bidding for the final contract. The $52 million contract for 16 S70 Avanto vehicles was awarded to Siemens on February 25, 2004. The original order was delivered between 2006–07, and these cars are numbered 101–116. Car 101 arrived via flatbed truck on Friday, June 23, 2006, from the Siemens facility in Florin, California. Testing of the vehicles began in August 2006 along a 1.3-mile (2.1 km) stretch of track between Tremont Avenue and the light rail maintenance facility off South Boulevard. During the testing phase, each car logged 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to test the acceleration, braking and overall performance for each vehicle. With an option in place to purchase up to an additional 25 vehicles, and better than expected ridership, in May 2008 CATS announced the purchase of four additional Avanto vehicles to add capacity to the existing 16 vehicles in operation. The trams cost $3.8 million each and were delivered by Siemens between January–March 2010.
Lynx's fleet initially consisted of sixteen, 91.3-foot (27.828 m), 97,470-pound (44,211.6 kg) Siemens-built S70 Avanto vehicles, similar to those in operation for the METRORail in Houston, Texas. Each vehicle contains 68 seats and has a maximum capacity of 236 passengers complete with four bike racks. Each car has a maximum speed of 65 miles per hour (105 km/h), but top speed is restricted to 55 miles per hour (89 km/h). Power comes from a 750-volt overhead wire.
In addition to the modern light rail vehicles, two vintage trolleys operate along the route between the 7th Street and East/West stations as the Charlotte Trolley. Since it operated along the same tracks, trolley service was temporarily halted on February 5, 2006, when construction began on the Lynx system. Scheduled to reopen in late 2006, in November 2006 CATS determined it would be unfeasible to have trolley service while the corridor still under construction. Thus trolley service resumed on April 20, 2008, and the heritage streetcars operate on weekends only in tandem with the modern light rail vehicles.
When not in use, the vehicles are stored at the South Boulevard Light Rail Facility, located along South Boulevard, between the New Bern and Scaleybark stations in the Sedgefield neighborhood. The facility is approximately 92,000 square feet (8,547.1 m2), and houses the Lynx rail maintenance staff, operations staff and the Rail Operations Control Center. Officially dedicated on June 23, 2007, the facility contains 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of track and 5,200 ties.
Read more about this topic: LYNX Blue Line
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