An eight-car train left the Chicago O’Hare International Airport station at 5:50 a.m. local time and headed for downtown Chicago.
Assembled by China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) Sifang America Incorporated in Chicago, the set of eight cars, which are part of the first batch of 10 cars of the CRRC Sifang America 7000 series, were delivered to the Chicago Transit Authority (Operator of the Chicago City Transportation System). This officially marked the start of in-service testing within CTA’s traffic management system.
The 7000 series wagons have bold blue ends, a new headlamp and taillight layout, and a new seating configuration with a mix of seats facing either the front or the aisle, which maximized available space and passenger comfort.
The new generation wagons have even more facilities on board: they are equipped with LED lighting, an improved system of active suspension of the cars, new technologies which help to improve the safety of daily operations, new touch screen controls equipped with an operator alert system, remote access capabilities for maintenance diagnostics and additional high definition security cameras. They also incorporate windproof glass panels flanking the passenger side doors, double-sided displays in the center of the cars showing information about the next stations, an “express mode” alert for hearing-impaired customers, and door chimes. separate for opening and closing doors to help the visually impaired.
The maximum speed of the trains is 70 miles or 112 km / h.
Since last summer, CTA has been testing CRRC Sifang America’s 10 non-operating cars to assess their performance under a wide range of weather and operating conditions. Once in-service testing, which is expected to continue until early 2022, is satisfactorily completed, production and batch delivery will begin.
CRRC Sifang America won a $ 1.3 billion contract in 2016 to supply 846 7000 series railcars to CTA. These wagons will replace nearly half of La CTA’s metro fleet, where the oldest wagons have been on the tracks for more than 30 years.
For the project, CRRC Sifang America invested $ 100 million and built a factory on the south side of Chicago. The assembly plant not only created hundreds of jobs for Chicagoans, but also created significant opportunities for local suppliers and related businesses. More importantly, this is the first time in over 50 years that the rail cars have been made locally in Chicago!
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