News & Reviews News Wire Brookville completes first trainset in Tacoma light rail order

Brookville completes first trainset in Tacoma light rail order

By Trains Staff | March 23, 2022

| Last updated on March 21, 2024

Equipment will support 2.4-mile Tacoma Link expansion to open in 2023

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Whiute and blue light rail trainset
The first of an order of five light rail vehicles for Sound Transit’s Tacoma Link is ready for shipment from Brookville Equipment Corp.’s Pennsylvania factory. Brookville Equipment Corp.

BROOKVILLE, Pa. — Brookville Equipment Corp is preparing to send the first of five new light rail vehicles to Tacoma, Wash., for the expansion of Sound Transit’s Tacoma Link, set to open in 2023.

The new equipment, 66-foot-long Liberty NXT Light Rail Vehicles, are being built under a $26.5 million contract. They will support the 2.4-mile Hilltop Extension of the current 1.6-mile Tacoma Link light rail line.

The articulated trainsets feature sets for 26, including four accessibility seats for passengers with bikes or wheelchairs, and a capacity of more than 100 including standees. The light rail vehicles are ADA compliant with deployable bridge plates for boarding.

4 thoughts on “Brookville completes first trainset in Tacoma light rail order

  1. Guess that’s a double or triple woops! (or should it be whoops?)
    Anyway, I also wonder about off-wire operation, since it’s been brought up. Also, I can’t help but wonder how they’ll be shipped. At 66 feet, that’s a very long and expensive oversize load to be shipped by truck. On the other hand, one complete set would easily fit on a TTX flat, if it’s low enough. But how long would it take by rail, and how safe is it from damage?
    Interesting to consider that Sound Transit has ordered five of these units to support a 2.4 mile extension. Meanwhile, NJ Transit is dithering about how/whether to replace the one set of Arrow MUs it uses on the Princeton Branch (also 2+ miles) to access a rather busy stop at Princeton Junction on the NE Corridor. It seems they can be easily replaced by similar light rail cars (similar to others Transit is using elsewhere), but no one but me seems to be suggesting it.

  2. The articulated trainsets feature sets (sic, I think you meant ‘seats’) for 26, including four assessibility (sic, perhaps ‘accessibility’?) seats for passengers with bikes or wheelchairs, and a capacity of more than 100 including standees.

    JPM would roll over in his grave seeing such basic typos and a lack of proper proofreading.

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