CHICAGO — Metra is starting the next phase of its in-house railcar rehabilitation program in which the agency will restore more than 300 Nippon Sharyo passenger cars. The bilevel commuter cars were delivered to the agency between 2002 and 2008. Metra workers plan to rehab about 35 passenger cars per year until 2020, when the facility will be expanded and capacity will increase to about 60 passenger cars annually.
The current cost of renovating the Nippon Sharyo-built cars is about $700,000 each. Each car is gutted and outfitted with new electrical outlets, LED lighting, toilet facilities, wheelchair lifts and composite floors and seats. The upgrades also include overhauled air conditioning systems and upgraded battery chargers for emergency lighting systems. The cars will also be retrofitted with positive train control equipment for cab car operations.
Metra representatives say its team of 60 carmen, electricians and sheet metal workers can rehab a single car in about 28 days. The work will extend the life of each car by 12 to 15 years.
The overhaul work will take place at the agency’s car shop on 49th Street in Chicago.
The reason Metra is tending toward the uncomfortable, fixed seats is that there are four competing vendors of them, whereas there is only one vendor of walkover seats. So, the new ones are cheaper.
No untold story. Floors wear out. Seats (besides just the upholstery) wear out. So they are being replaced.
Why do they need to replace the seats, anyway? Why replacement instead of simply new upholstery? Why new floors, for that matter? It seems there is a story here that is not told . . .
I rode in one of these refurbished cars a few weeks ago. I found the seats very uncomfortable as compared to the seats in older, un-refurbished cars.