[JonathanGRR]

M-1 Rail has finally announced the company that they have chosen to design and build the streetcars: Czech Republic-based Inekon Trams. Honestly, I had never heard of this company before. They do have streetcars in few American cities though.

M-1 Rail picks Czech firm to design, build streetcars
Bill Shea | November 3, 2014

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.

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.
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http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...ild-streetcars