January 16, 2007
Green Line Trains Get Mixed Car Configurations
Most — if not all — Green Line trains will now have an S70 low-floor car in the consist.
Although this was promised when the S70 trains were first introduced, they are finally being paired with SD-100s. This will allow for slightly more passenger load along the Green Line, along with more flexibility for passengers in wheelchairs.
I was on the inaugural Green Line train, and I had a chance to speak with MTS's chief S70 engineer, a huge, friendly Ukrainian guy named Uli. He said he loved the new S70 trains because he could hook his laptop up to the train's computers, and they'd tell him exactly what was going on (unlike older SD-100 and U2 trains).
When I asked about the mixed-consist, Uli said the powertrain worked perfectly, so acceleration and braking were just fine. The problem, they found was in the signage and announcement systems. If the S70 car was leading, there was no problem. But if the SD-100 train led, none of the announcements or signage would work. At that time (June 2005) they had a Siemens engineer working full-time on the problem. I don't know if it's taken this long to solve it, or MTS decided to implement a mixed-consist for other reasons.
The signage for both cars worked like normal. This morning, I rode in a S70 with the SD-100 leading, so the announcements were the SD-100 announcements, just keyed over the S70's PA. (The S70's announcement system was not used.) I would assume if the S70 is leading, its announcements would be keyed over the SD-100's PA.
Looking at my train this morning, it seemed as though people favored the S70. Not surprising. MTS posted fliers showing where the wheelchair access doors were for each train. Depending on the direction of travel, the wheelchair lift on the SD-100 may not be available, because there's no driver there to operate it.
All in all, good news for the Green Line.
Posted by BetterTrolley Conductor at January 16, 2007 08:26 AM