LOW-FLOOR LIGHT RAIL VEHICLES FOR THE MBTA'S GREEN LINE HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESS SO FAR

Boston's Green Line runs over some of the oldest rail transit right-of-way in the country. It consists of 36 route miles of double track, and currently carries 220,000 people per day using a fleet of traditional high-floor light rail vehicles (LRVs). The fleet is made up of 75 Boeing Standard Light Rail Vehicles which were delivered in the mid 1970s and 100 "Type 7" LRVs built by Kinkisharyo in the mid 1980s. In 1987, well in advance of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) faced mounting public pressure to improve the accessibility of the Green Line. At the same time, the MBTA commissioned a comprehensive study to evaluate options for making the Green Line readily accessible to the disabled. The study evaluated both station access and vehicle design. Alternative solutions were compared on: cost, time to implement, impact on operations, and maintenance and implementation risk. Based on the study the MBTA selected low-floor Light Rail Vehicle technology as the best overall best option. The MBTA then surveyed the available vehicle technologies to determine if they were compatible with the unique Green Line infrastructure, and to assess their level of maturity and the associated technical risk. After four years of specification development and industry review, the MBTA advertised for 100 state-of-the-art low-floor LRVs in February of 1994. In May of 1995, a contract was awarded to Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie with production deliveries to begin in 1998. This paper explores how the history of the Green Line impacts the application of low-floor light rail vehicles and provides an update of the design progress so far.

• Corporate Authors:

  American Public Transportation Association

  1201 New York Avenue, NW
  Washington, DC    20005
• Authors:
  • Strong, D
  • Morse, G T
• Conference:
  • Proceedings of the 1996 Rapid Transit Conference of the American Public Transit Association
  • Location: Atlanta, Georgia
  • Date: 1996-6-2 to 1996-6-6
• Publication Date: 1996

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 88-95

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Infrastructure; Light rail vehicles; Low floor vehicles; Maintenance; Persons with disabilities; State of the art
• Identifier Terms: Boeing aircraft; Boeing Company; Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
• Subject Areas: Maintenance and Preservation; Operations and Traffic Management; Public Transportation; Society; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00749094
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Volume 2
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 13 1998 12:00AM