TriMet Streetcar Prototype Final Report JANUARY 2015 FTA Report No. 0085 Federal Transit Administration PREPARED BY TriMet City of Portland Portland Streetcar, Inc. COVER PHOTO Courtesy of Casey Ailes. DISCLAIMER This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The United States Government assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof. The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the objective of this report. TriMet Streetcar Prototype Final Report JANUARY 2015 FTA Report No. 0085 PREPARED BY TriMet 1800 S. W. First Avenue Portland, OR 97201 City of Portland 1120 S. W. Fifth Avenue Portland, PR 97204 Portland Streetcar, Inc. 1031 N.W. 11th Avenue Portland, OR 97209 SPONSORED BY Federal Transit Administration Office of Research, Demonstration and Innovation U.S. Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590 AVAILABLE ONLINE http://www.fta.dot.gov/research i FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION i Metric Conversion Table SYMBOL WHEN YOU KNOW MULTIPLY BY TO FIND SYMBOL LENGTH in inches 25.4 millimeters mm ft feet 0.305 meters m yd yards 0.914 meters m mi miles 1.61 kilometers km VOLUME fl oz fluid ounces 29.57 milliliters mL gal gallons 3.785 liter L ft3 cubic feet 0.028 cubic meters m3 yd3 cubic yards 0.765 cubic meters m3 NOTE: volumes greater than 1000 L shall be shown in m3 MASS oz ounces 28.35 grams g lb pounds 0.454 kilograms kg megagrams T short tons (2000 lb) 0.907 Mg (or “t”) (or “metric ton”) TEMPERATURE (exact degrees) o 5 (F-32)/9 o F Fahrenheit Celsius C or (F-32)/1.8 i FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION ii REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instruc- tions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-0188), Washington, DC 20503. 1. AGENCY USE ONLY 2. REPORT DATE 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED January 2015 Final 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5. FUNDING NUMBERS TriMet Streetcar Prototype, Final Report OR-26-7001 6. AUTHOR(S) TriMet, City of Portland, Portland Streetcar, Inc. 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESSE(ES) 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER TriMet, 1800 S. W. First Avenue, Portland, OR 97201 City of Portland, 1120 S. W. Fifth Avenue, Portland, OR 97204 FTA Report No. 0085 Portland Streetcar, Inc., 1031 N.W. 11th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY REPORT U.S. Department of Transportation NUMBER Federal Transit Administration Office of Research, Demonstration and Innovation FTA Report No. 0085 East Building 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590 11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES [http://www.fta.dot.gov/research] 12A. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT 12B. DISTRIBUTION CODE Available from: National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Springfield, VA 22161. Phone 703.605.6000, Fax 703.605.6900, email [[email protected]] TRI-20 13. ABSTRACT This report documents the effort led by TriMet, the City of Portland (City) and Portland Streetcar, Inc. (PSI) to domestically manufacture a streetcar for operation in the Portland Streetcar system. The report includes documentation of the initial process of producing the streetcar, the extension of the grant to support domestic manufacture of the propulsion system by Rockwell Automation, and operation in revenue service. Also included is a discussion of the market for streetcars in the U.S. and a history of streetcar manufacturing in the U.S. 14. SUBJECT TERMS 15. NUMBER OF PAGES TriMet, streetcar 54 16. PRICE CODE 17. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION 18. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION 19. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION 20. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT OF REPORT OF THIS PAGE OF ABSTRACT Unclassified Unclassified Unclassified TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Executive Summary 3 Section 1: Background 5 Section 2: Streetcar Manufacture and System Performance 7 Domestic Propulsion System 8 Revenue Service Performance 9 Off-Wire Feasibility 10 Final Vehicle Acceptance 11 Section 3: Domestic Streetcar Production and Use 13 Streetcar Suppliers in the U.S. 18 Section 4: Lessons Learned 23 Issues for Streetcars in the U.S. 23 Recommendations for Future Research 25 Section 5: The Modern Streetcar Market 25 Reintroduction in the U.S. 27 The Modern Streetcar 30 Section 6: History of Streetcar Manufacturing in the U.S. 30 Horsecars to Cable Cars 33 Early Electric Railways 36 The Trolley Boom 37 Manufacturers 43 President’ Conference Committee 44 A Vintage Vision FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION iv LIST OF FIGURES 4 Figure 1-1: Timeline of TriMet streetcar prototype project 6 Figure 1-2: Prototype production 6 Figure 1-3: Prototype vehicle 7 Figure 1-4: U.S. DOT Secretary LaHood at prototype introduction ceremony 12 Figure 3-1: Sun Link streetcar in Tucson 12 Figure 3-2: DC Streetcar 14 Figure 3-3: Major streetcar vendor locations in the U.S. 27 Figure 5-1: Committed streetcar cities 30 Figure 6-1: New York City horsecar 31 Figure 6-2: Steam Dummy 32 Figure 6-3: Andrew Hallidie 33 Figure 6-4: Cable car in San Francisco 33 Figure 6-5: Leo Daft’s Ampere Electric Engine 34 Figure 6-6: Ernst Werner von Siemens 34 Figure 6-7: Trolley system 35 Figure 6-8: Frank Sprague 35 Figure 6-9: Postcard of Sprague’s Richmond line 36 Figure 6-10: U.S. Postal streetcar 38 Figure 6-11: Stephenson’s reversible horsecar in mid-rotation 38 Figure 6-12: Barney and Smith Interurban 39 Figure 6-13: Patent drawings for Low’s Adjustable Car 39 Figure 6-14: Hammond’s California Car 40 Figure 6-15: Brill Convertible Car 41 Figure 6-16: Birney Safety Car 41 Figure 6-17: “Rubberstamp” Car 42 Figure 6-18: Thomas’s St. Charles Street streetcar post-Katrina 42 Figure 6-19: PCC Car 43 Figure 6-20: The Brilliner 44 Figure 6-21: Interior of PCC car with “standee windows” 45 Figure 6-22: Fifteen-bench replica LIST OF TABLES 15 Table 3-1: Major Streetcar Vendors in the U.S. 28 Table 5-1: U.S. Streetcar Vehicle Market 29 Table 5-2: Modern Streetcar Potential Manufacturers, U.S. Streetcar Market FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION v ABSTRACT This report documents the effort led by TriMet, the City of Portland (City) and Portland Streetcar, Inc. (PSI) to domestically manufacture a streetcar for opera- tion in the Portland Streetcar system. The report includes documentation of the initial process of producing the streetcar, the extension of the grant to support domestic manufacture of the propulsion system by Rockwell Automation, and op- eration in revenue service. Also included is a discussion of the market for street- cars in the U.S. and a history of streetcar manufacturing in the U.S. PROTOTYPE PROJECT REPRESENTATIVES TriMet Sandy Bradley, Capital Projects City of Portland Kathryn Levine, Vicky Diede, Streetcar Project Managers Portland Streetcar, Inc. Dan Bower, Executive Director Consultants Rick Gustafson, Carter MacNichol, Roger Shiels Shiels Obletz Johnsen, Inc. 1140 SW 11th Avenue, Suite 500, Portland, OR 97205 Denny Porter, Mike Guthrie, Dan Hartung, Jason Krause LTK Engineering 101 SW Main, Suite 810, Portland, OR 97204 Manufacturer Oregon Iron Works, LLC United Streetcar, LLC Kevin Clarke, President FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION vi EXECUTIVE This report documents the effort led by TriMet, the City of Portland (City), SUMMARY and Portland Streetcar, Inc. (PSI) to domestically manufacture a streetcar for operation in the Portland Streetcar system. TriMet is the regional transit provider for the Portland Metropolitan Region and the eligible Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant recipient. The City owns the Portland Streetcar system. PSI is a non-profit entity designated as the Operating Entity by TriMet and the City of Portland. TriMet received a grant from FTA to domestically manufacture streetcars. Oregon Iron Works (OIW) was selected through a competitive process to develop a prototype vehicle produced by a domestic manufacturer. OIW entered into an agreement with Skoda for the production of the prototype vehicle. The purpose of the grant was to increase the capability of domestic manufacturers in the business of supplying streetcars. The report documents the initial process of producing the streetcar, the extension of the grant to support domestic manufacture of the propulsion system by Rockwell Automation, and operation in revenue service. Also included are a discussion of the market for streetcars in the U.S. and a history of streetcar manufacturing in the U.S. Portland began looking for a streetcar that was smaller than the typical light rail vehicle and capable of operating in mixed traffic. No streetcars were readily available in the U.S. at that time. Portland issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) in 1998 for streetcar vehicles and received two responses. A Czech Republic manufacturer, Inekon-Skoda, was selected to provide the vehicles for Portland. Tacoma (Washington) obtained options from Portland and placed an order for three cars. The Portland system opened in 2001. By 2005, two modern low-floor streetcar systems had been implemented in Portland and Tacoma. Many other cities expressed interest in developing a streetcar system for their communities. Portland was developing a major extension that would call for seven additional vehicles to support its system.