Organizers of Detroit’s M-1 Rail streetcar line said today they will begin talks with the parent company of Czech rail car manufacturer Inekon Trams to design and build six streetcars for use on the Woodward Avenue loop when it begins service in late 2016. The six streetcars are expected to cost a combined $30 million, M-1 said in a statement. After a delay of more than a year, M-1 said it will negotiate with Inekon Group, based in the Czech Republic city of Ostrava. “M-1 Rail will negotiate the final terms and conditions with Inekon Group to build our streetcars,” M-1 COO Paul Childs said in a statement. “Inekon has a strong track record with other streetcar projects in Portland, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and owns a 40 percent share of U.S.-installed projects." The company’s website is inekon-trams.com.
Inekon builds new streetcars, refurbishes old ones and designs and builds tram lines.
Inekon has off-the-shelf tram models, but M-1’s streetcars will be custom units.
The company also has done tram or track work in Russia, Ukraine and China.Inekon Group also has chemical and wastewater products units. The parent company’s English-language site is inekon.cz/en.The company was launched in 1990 after Czechoslovakia became a Western liberal democracy after decades under communist rule.
Because federal money is financing the $137 million M-1 project, Washington mandates that the streetcars meet domestic manufacturing requirements. “We want to assure that materials, parts, labor, manufacturing processes and final assembly will meet the Buy America requirements,” Childs said. The streetcars will be assembled in the United States. M-1 said it will announce a final assembly location in the future, and “several locations in Southeast Michigan are under consideration.” The nonprofit rail project, initially launched in 2007, had no other details to disclose about the streetcar assembly work but emphasized the American-made initiative. “It’s too early to talk about any sourcing or potential manufacturing locations, but we are committed to the principles of Buy America’s support of U.S.-based suppliers and the families who work for them,” M-1 said. Here are some of the details the M-1 did provide about the streetcars themselves, each of which will cost $5 million: • They will have vertical bicycle racks, Wi-Fi and heating and air conditioning. • They will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, allowing for station-level access for pedestrians and people who use mobility-assist devices such as wheelchairs. • Each of the double-ended, double-sided streetcars will be 73 feet long, 8.5 feet wide and 13 feet high with a vehicle weight of about 76,000 pounds, M-1 said. They will each use a driver. • M-1 said the streetcars also will include regenerative braking that adds to the efficiency of the line, an ability to travel in the same lane at the same speed as bus and vehicle traffic, low floors that eliminate trip hazards on board and doors in three locations on each car. • The streetcars will be powered by lithium-ion battery packs but also use an aerial electrical power line for about 40 percent of the loop, M-1 said. “M-1 Rail will minimize its impact on the aesthetics of Detroit’s iconic Woodward Avenue, and we also will not have the labyrinth of wires overhead at the Penske Technical Center,” Childs said.
M-1’s statement didn’t discuss seating, but such streetcars can range from 40 seated passengers to a total of 200 with standing room. Under M-1’s original timeline, bids for the design, engineering and manufacture of six streetcars were due in October 2013, and a preferred vendor was to be chosen by November of that year. A contract was supposed to be done by Dec. 21, 2013. M-1 said the delays were because of the talks with the streetcar vendors but did not disclose specifics. Today’s streetcar announcement is the latest major milestone: Last week M-1 announced it had awarded a design-build contract to a four-company consortium (including three based in Detroit) for the $6.9 million Penske Technical Center, which will be built in the New Center area as a maintenance, storage and technical center by early 2016. The facility will be named for Roger Penske, founder and chairman of Bloomfield Hills-based Penske Corp. He has been co-chairman of the nonprofit rail project since 2008, and his company is providing $7 million toward the line’s $179.4 million project cost, which includes 10 years of operations funding. Funding comes from private, foundation, local, state and federal money. The next major contract will be for a third-party operator to actually run M-1 Rail once it’s in service. “Among our next significant activities will be to develop requirements and solicit proposals for the system operator, which will eventually run the entire line,” Childs said. In July, M-1 began building the mostly curbside fixed-rail streetcar circulator system, which will be commingled with traffic. It will have 20 stations at 12 stops between Grand Boulevard and Congress Street, and it will run in the median at its north and south ends. Organizers predict 5,000 to 8,000 riders a day, with a basic one-way fare of $1.50.
For me, this one sentence indicated this project is being run by people with little idea what they are doing: "Inekon has off-the-shelf tram models, but M-1’s streetcars will be custom units."
For a total order of half a dozen units, the only customization should be the paint job.
Dakguy201 For me, this one sentence indicated this project is being run by people with little idea what they are doing: "Inekon has off-the-shelf tram models, but M-1’s streetcars will be custom units." For a total order of half a dozen units, the only customization should be the paint job.
To my knowledge, Inekon doesn't make an OTS battery car. IIRC the M-1 Rail system is intended to run about 60% of its mileage battery-only.
Some of the folks on here may enjoy this page describing Inekon's present "USA-specific" manufacturing.
(The link to Inekon in the Crain's story appears to have been malformed, coded by hamster IT, and I thought it a bit amusing that Inekon's English-language page coding appears to have been done by a group associated with... dentistry.)
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