In August 2018, Brookville also delivered the fourth in an order of five of its modern Liberty Streetcar vehicles with onboard energy storage system to the City of Milwaukee, marking the 100th streetcar vehicle the company has designed and built, restored, or to which it has made major contributions. Brookville has since delivered the fifth and final vehicle to Milwaukee.
“It’s exciting to achieve both of these key streetcar delivery milestones in our 100th year of operations,” said Brookville Vice President of Business Development Joel McNeil. “The Liberty Streetcar and our PCC restoration programs demonstrate the Brookville team’s dynamic and diverse range of manufacturing skills, and our ability as an organization to both preserve and modernize historical fleets and develop modern transit vehicles for the American cities of tomorrow.”
Later this year, Brookville will also share major milestones with three customers, as new streetcar lines open in cities around the country. Milwaukee’s streetcar line, The Hop, will open on Nov. 2, 2018, and operate five Liberty Streetcars with on board energy storage. Less than a week later, on Nov. 8, the City of El Paso will begin revenue service for its fleet of six restored and modernized PCC streetcar vehicles, which have been out of service since the 1970s. Finally, on Dec. 14, Oklahoma City will open its streetcar line, which will operate seven Liberty Streetcars.
Brookville will ship one more PCC streetcar vehicle to El Paso and one additional Liberty Streetcar vehicle to Oklahoma City in the coming weeks, wrapping up two major orders. Brookville is also currently rebuilding a fleet of 16 PCC streetcars for San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority, with 10 vehicles completed as of October 2018. Earlier this year, Brookville celebrated the shipment of its 25th PCC restoration for San Francisco.
With more than 100 vehicles delivered, Brookville has also continued to pick up new orders in recent months, including for its next-generation Liberty vehicle, the Liberty NXT, for Valley Metro’s Tempe Streetcar (six vehicles), Sound Transit’s Tacoma Link LRV Extension (five vehicles), and the City of Portland (two vehicles).
Source: Brookville Equipment Corp. release
BOB – Last time I was in downtown Detroit was I think 2010. I rode the people mover that occasion and on an earlier trip maybe 8 to 10 years earlier than that (because we drove 350 miles from Wisconsin, parked at Cobo and needed to get a half mile to Woodward Avenue), and several times maybe in the 1980’s. Actually (if this is your point) the people mover probably does get a fair amount of traffic especially with events at Ford Field and Comerica Park. Whatever. It’s a hugely expensive downtown distributor for short-haul trips. A real transit system is something that would get you downtown from neighborhoods or suburbs 5 to 15 miles out. The people mover moves people who drive downtown and need to swish around from their parking spaces. I don’t doubt that Bricktown and Greektown get a lot of traffic from the people mover but it’s short-haul from people who drive to downtown. The people mover is a costly and inflexible system unable to expand to the huge amount of development which I predicted (but few others foresaw) to the north, just out of reach of the Grand Circus station.
Charles, when was the last time you were in Detroit? Whenwas the last time you were on the People Mover there?
GEORGE: Good question, I’m not in favor of the Milwaukee trolley. To clear the record, I AM YES in favor of subsidized transit. When I take the bus from Town of Brookfield (home of both me and of TRAINS-MAG) to Milwaukee to ride Amtrak’s Hiawatha, both seats are subsidized. Both are subsidized by the State of Wisconsin and at least one if not both by the federals. I’m pro transit. The Milwaukee downtown trolley doesn’t qualify as transit. It qualifies as a joke.
Charles Landey – Just to be clear, does this mean I should put you down as “Not In Favor?”
AUSTIN – Austin, you are very much anticipating The Hop opening in three weeks. Everyone I know is very much anticipating its failure. The key phrase in the story above is that the streetcar is being delivered to the CITY of Milwaukee. Of course it is the COUNTY of Milwaukee that has operated the bus transit system, but the County of Milwaukee has wanted nothing to do with this oncoming fiasco. Nor has the State of Wisconsin which has generously subsidized bus transit systems all around the state. Yeah, this will get some riders – heck, it’s a free ride. Just as Detroit’s downtown people mover (another system orphaned from regional transit) gets some riders, enough annual riders to pay for shoveling the snow off of one of the station platforms if it only snows once a year. Speaking of snow, let’s get back to Milwaukee. People keep asking, what happens to The Hop when it snows. I have a ready answer. Every snow crew will start with The Hop’s tracks and boarding areas. If you have a house at 99th and Oklahoma, or 99th and Burleigh, or 99th and Wisconsin, you’ll just have to wait. As far as I’m concerned, the voters of Milwaukee deserve what’s coming. Not only did they elect the Mayor and Common Council who spent this money, the voters of Milwaukee had the opportunity to vote this down in a referendum but they didn’t even get signatures on the petition to start the process. They can have the thing, while Mrs. Landey and I sit comfortably in suburbia laughing our heads off.
Very much anticipating a “hop” in November.