ON AUGUST 2 Minneapolis Metropolitan Council selected Bombardier Transportation to manufacture up to 22 cars for the city’s 18·3 km Hiawatha Corridor light rail line. The price for 22 cars is $65m, well below the $80m estimate, but a base option is 18 for $56m - a final decision will be made once the cost of the civil engineering is known.
On the same day, the council approved the start of negotiations with the Minnesota Transit Constructors Joint Venture, led by Granite Construction Co and including the Parsons Transportation Group, for a design-and-build contract valued at $260m to $272m. The contract is expected to be signed this month, together with a separate deal for a tunnel and station under Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport.
The line will run southeast from Minneapolis along Hiawatha Avenue, to the airport and the Mall of America in Bloomington. Revenue services from the Nicollet Mall to Fort Snelling are due to start in late 2003, with the final section to the airport and Mall of America opening at the end of 2004.
The partially low-floor double-articulated LRVs will be 28·6 m long, and 2640mm wide, with 67 seats plus space for four wheelchairs, luggage shelves and bicycle racks. Crush load capacity will be 187. The cars are to be designed at Bombardier’s Sahagun plant in Mexico, where the bodyshells will be built. Final assembly will undertaken at Barre, Vermont. The first car is to be delivered in October 2002, with the series build following at two cars per month from February 2003.
- Demonstration runs for a proposed commuter rail service between Minneapolis and St Cloud were held on August 10, using two Bombardier-built double-deck cars en route to the Seattle Sounder operation. Northstar Corridor Development Authority hopes to raise $231m to launch the service on BNSF tracks in 2004, connecting with the Hiawatha LRT near Target Center in central Minneapolis.
