By Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic

The first of the Valley’s light rail cars have rolled off the assembly line in Osaka. Japan, and soon will undergo a battery of tests before heading to Arizona. Valley Metro officials said the manufacturer Kinkisharyo International will open a facility in Arizona. Final components on the cars, such as wiring, will be installed at the new facility. The plants location is being negotiated.Next month, one of the two finished cars, Vehicle 102, will be exposed to Arizona-like conditions in a climate chamber as 17 others are being built. It will be blasted with 127 degree heat and 95% humidity as it is tested to see if massive, state-of-the-art air-conditioners can maintain a constant 74 to 78 degrees inside the cars. The other car will go to New Jersey, where engineers will comb through the car to test every inch, from the seats to the public address system.
Metro plans to spend $118 million for 50 rail cars from Kinkisharyo.  Work remains on

schedule and on budget, according to a Valley Metro report. The train cars are expected to be shipped across the Pacific Ocean and unloaded at the ports of Los Angles and Long Beach. Each car is 92 feet long and seats 66 people, plus it has a enough standing room for 173 people.  They will feature four doors, interior hanging bicycle racks, low floors and closed circuit security cameras. The trains are capable of traveling 55 mph and are powered by a 750 volt overhead line.  They have shock-absorbing bumpers to limit damage to cars in case of crash. There are no U.S. manufacturers of light-rail cars.
Federal “buy American” require 62% of the work to be done in the United States, which is why the final assembly plant will be in Arizona.  Metro’s steel rails were manufactured in Austria, and are being built by a German-based company.