First Siemens Light Rail Vehicle Arrival Marks Start of New Transportation Era in San Francisco
Siemens recently joined the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to celebrate the delivery of the city’s first new Siemens-built light rail vehicle. It’s a significant milestone not only for future riders, but for Siemens manufacturing plant just a few hours east in Sacramento, California where Siemens is building a record 215 of these vehicles.
The event celebrated how partnership and innovation can transform the way people will move in and around San Francisco. As the city has made transportation infrastructure a top priority, this collaboration is helping shape the future of public transportation for San Francisco and the surrounding areas.
The new light rail vehicles have been designed with the latest advanced technology that will soon improve the transportation experience for approximately 235,000 passengers who use San Francisco’s Muni railway system.
“An incredible amount of work went into making sure these vehicles are going to work for us in San Francisco — for our riders, for our hills, for our environment on the streets,” said SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin. “So much detail went into making sure that we’re really going to get the performance, the comfort, the safety that we want in our system.”
The vehicles are more energy-efficient with a regenerative braking system and LED lighting that uses up to 40 percent less electricity than standard neon lighting. Siemens also designed the LRVs to be extremely reliable — estimated to last 10 times longer before requiring significant maintenance than the previous light rail vehicles.
