Company US Rail Projects Design & Testing Support Services KS Worldwide
 
 1st Light Rail Car Leaves Japan for N.J.Testing
 


By Sean Holstege
The Arizona Republic/Oct. 23, 2006

The Valley's first light-rail train car, No. 101, is steaming for the Panama Canal, bound for New Jersey, having completed a battery of successful tests in Osaka, Japan.
"This is a wonderful machine," said Metro's operations chief, Joe Marie, who checked out the first train on a tour last month of the Kinkisharyo International factory. He described the inspection as one of the best he's participated in during a lengthy transit career.
"We are satisfied as a team we got a good product," he said.
Train car 101 departed the port of Kobe, Japan, on Sept. 30. It's expected to arrive in Baltimore on Nov. 2 and from there be trucked to Newark for further tests beginning in mid-November.
Key among the tests is checking whether the train accelerates and brakes smoothly. Then it will be sent to Arizona for final assembly

 






and testing on Phoenix streets.The other train that's been completed, car 102, has passed a two-month test inside a climate chamber, where temperatures were pushed to 127 degrees Fahrenheit. That train is expected to be the first to arrive in Phoenix, in late January or early February, Marie said.
Metro is buying 50 rail cars for $159 million. On Wednesday, Metro's governing board authorized Marie to enter into a five-year, $27 million contract with Pittsburgh-based Kinkisharyo, a subsidiary of a Japanese firm, to maintain the trains. The firm beat out three competitors on the basis of qualifications, Marie said, and its price was about $800,000 under the official estimate.
The first light rail train is scheduled to begin service in December 2008.