Czech rail manufacturer Inekon has been selected to design and build six new trams for Detroit’s M1-Rail project.
Inekon, which has supplied light rail vehicles to other US cities including Portland and Seattle, will now enter into talks with M-1 RAIL to determine what exactly the trams will look like and where they will be manufactured.
M1-RAIL has said the trams will be 22-metre long, 2.6-metre wide bi-directional units.
The low-floor streetcars will also be fitted with lithium-ion batteries, allowing for catenary-free operation on 60 per cent of the line, and regenerative braking.
To comply with Buy America requirements, M1-RAIL said it was looking at a several potential manufacturing sites in Southeast Michigan.
The order has been valued at around $30 million.
The M-1 streetcar project, which is set to open in 2016, will run north to south for 5.3 kilometres between Larned Street and W. Grand Blvd. The new system will also connect to regional Amtrak services and Detroit’s automated people mover.
M-1 RAIL, the authority delivering the new tram network, has said the $140 million project was the first light rail line in the US to be financed by a public-private partnership comprising corporations and local, state and federal governments.
