US Standard Light Rail Vehicle - Replacements and Retirement

Replacements and Retirement

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.

It was clear that the LRV was no longer a part of the MBTA's long-term future. Between 1986 and 1988, the MBTA took delivery of new Type 7 light rail cars built by Kinki Sharyo of Japan. These cars proved far more reliable and quickly assumed most of the base service on the Green Line. With the Type 7's, the MBTA was finally able to retire most of its PCC cars, which had to remain in service longer than originally planned due to problems associated with the Boeings.

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.

At the end of 2001, Muni retired the last of their Boeing 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. However, the new Type 8s have been experiencing LRV-type problems, especially derailments, which had significantly delayed their entry into service, with MBTA nearly suspending the contract. These issues were finally resolved in 2006, allowing production and delivery of the Type 8 cars to resume. By early 2007, a sufficient number Type 8 cars had entered service to allow the retirement of the Boeings. The final revenue service run of the MBTA Boeing cars was made on March 16, 2007, on the Riverside Line by cars 3485 and 3499. By 2010, all Type 8s had been delivered and entered service.

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, and 3520 were sold to the US Government in Pueblo, 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 not in operating condition and Seashore wanted an operating example. 3444 was missing several essential components, including one of the trucks, and was heavily rusted. The 3444 was later scrapped in 2005, and Seashore instead 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 LRVs, Metrolink ultimately declined to buy the remaining stored units and they have since been 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.