Oregon streetcar gamble starts to pay off : The project to set up a US tram manufacturing capability in the Oregon city of Portland seems to be paying off. After last month’s order for six Czech-licensed cars for Portland, Oregon Iron Works has announced a USD 26 M order for seven trams of the 10T type from the Arizonan city of Tucson.
The Tucson version will have more powerful air conditioning. The city has enjoyed heritage tramway operation on city streets by a volunteer group for several years, and is now extending the tracks into the city to provide a city centre circulator.
It seems modern streetcars are being made quite close to the Greater Vancouver area.
28 May 2009
Tags: Portland streetcar, streetcars, streetcars on Broadway, UBC SkyTrain subway
May 28, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Congratulations to Portland for a venture that’s paying off both in terms of their transit system and as a generator of good jobs. Had Glen Clark stuck with LRT instead of SkyTrain for the Millennium Line maybe Burnaby would be home to a successful rail car manufacturing plant.
May 29, 2009 at 4:33 am
Congrats! Streetcars are coming back..
Those streetcars would look quite nice along Broadway….
May 29, 2009 at 6:01 am
Just a note: these streetcars or trams are of modular construction and can be made longer, with no penalty in speed. In Strasbourg, they operate modular tramcars (the Jumbo’s) that have a capacity of 350 persons!
May 29, 2009 at 10:50 am
Budapest runs 54m long trams!