Metra has started the next round of its in-house railcar rehabilitation program, which takes place at the company’s 49th Street Car Shop. In this phase, the rehabilitation program will concern 302 railcars that were manufactured by Nippon Sharyo and delivered to Metra between 2002 and 2008.
The program will be able to rehab about 35 railcars a year until about 2020, when the facility will be expanded and capacity will increase to about 60 railcars annually. The current cost of renovating the Nippon Sharyo railcars is about USD 700,000 each.
In the program, each car is gutted and outfitted with new passenger amenities such as electric outlets to power phones and other small electronics, sensitive-edge outer doors that will retract if they come in contact with a person or object, four new LED signs per car to display station announcements and new toilets and bathrooms, wheelchair lifts, composite floors and seats. The upgrades also include overhauled air conditioning systems, upgraded battery chargers used for emergency lighting and hardware components for the federally mandated Positive Train Control safety system.
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