Siemens S200

The Siemens S200 is a high-floor light rail vehicle (LRV) manufactured by Siemens Mobility, a division of Siemens AG, in Florin, California.[3] The S200 model succeeds the SD-100, SD-160, SD-400 and SD-460 as the high-floor version of Siemens's light rail vehicle for North America, and is being manufactured and marketed with the low-floor S70. The American SD-series is based on the Siemens–Duewag U2 family from Frankfurt, Germany with the latest SD models being already assembled in California.

Siemens S200 LRV
S200 SF of San Francisco Muni in April 2018
In service	2016–present
Manufacturer	Siemens-USA AG
Constructed	2015–present
Number under construction	69 (Calgary) 205 (San Francisco)
Number in service	60 (Calgary) 56 (San Francisco)
Fleet numbers	2401-2469 (Calgary) 2001-2219 (San Francisco)
Capacity	247 (Calgary) 193 (SF)
Operator(s)	Calgary Transit San Francisco Municipal Railway
Line(s) served	CTrain Muni Metro
Specifications
Car length	84.6 ft (25.79 m) (Calgary) 75 ft (23 m) (SF)
Width	104.3 in (2.65 m) (both)
Height	12.6 ft (3.8 m) (Calgary) 11.5 ft (3.5 m) (SF)
Floor height	3.2 ft (0.98 m) (Calgary) 2.8 ft (0.85 m) (SF)
Maximum speed	50 mph (80 km/h) (Calgary) 55 mph (89 km/h) (SF)
Weight	89,950 lb (40,800 kg) (Calgary) 76,000 lb (34,000 kg) (SF)
Steep gradient	7% (Calgary) 10% (SF)
Power output	776 hp (579 kW) (Calgary) 696 hp (519 kW) (SF)
Acceleration	2.13 mph/s (0.95 m/s/s) (Calgary) 3.0 mph/s (1.3 m/s/s) (SF)
Deceleration	2.95 mph/s (1.32 m/s/s) (Calgary) 3.5 mph/s (1.6 m/s/s) (SF)
Electric system(s)	600 V DC overhead lines
Current collection method	Pantograph
Minimum turning radius	82 ft (24.99 m) (Calgary) 41.6 ft (12.68 m) (SF)
Track gauge	4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Notes
[1][2]

Operators

Calgary

An S200 in Calgary in 2018

In September 2013, 60 LRVs were ordered, costing $200 million, for the Calgary CTrain;[4] the order was later slightly expanded to 63 LRVs at a cost of $201.6 million.[5] The first car was delivered on January 6, 2016.[6]

Later, an additional 6 cars were ordered. The first of this order was delivered in May, 2019, and was put into service on July 11, 2019.

San Francisco

Siemens have designated the S200 light rail vehicles for San Francisco as S200 SF; internally, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency have designated them LRV4, succeeding prior LRV designs from Boeing-Vertol (LRV1) and AnsaldoBreda (LRV2 and LRV3).

The initial contract ordered 175 LRVs, totalling $648 million, for San Francisco's Muni Metro in September 2014.[7] Option 1 for an additional 40 was exercised in June 2015.[8] Option 2, for an additional 45, requires additional approval and has not been exercised. Four more LRVs were ordered in June 2017 to handle an expected increase in traffic after the Golden State Warriors move to the Chase Center in 2019.[9]

S200 SF/LRV4 contract history & modifications

Contract	Qty	Fleet (qty)	Delivery
2013-19[10]	175	Replacement (151)	2021–27
		Future (24)	2017–19
Mod.1[11]	40	Future (44)	2017–19
Mod.4[9]	4
Total	219

The existing order of 219 LRVs (as of November 2019) is divided into a "replacement fleet" of 151 LRVs to replace Muni's existing fleet of Breda LRV2/3s and a "future fleet" of 68 to accommodate expanded ridership after the completion of the Central Subway and Chase Center.[12]

Deliveries of the "future fleet" began in January 2017. The first Muni unit entered service on November 17, 2017.[13] The "future fleet" deliveries completed in October 2019. Deliveries of LRVs for the "replacement fleet" are scheduled to begin in 2021.[12]

Reliability

One of the primary concerns for the LRV4 fleet in San Francisco was improving the mean distance between failures (MDBF) compared to the existing Breda LRV2/3 fleet. The Breda fleet was able to achieve an MDBF of 2,000–5,500 miles (3,200–8,900 km) in fiscal years 2005 and 2006; the contract with Siemens called for a MDBF of 25,000 miles (40,000 km). When they were initially placed in service, the Siemens LRV4 had a MDBF of 5,000 miles (8,000 km), improving to 17,000 miles (27,000 km) by January 2020.[14]^:21

Seating

Ridership surveys and SFMTA staff recommendations resulted in an all-longitudinal seating configuration for the initial "future fleet" delivery of 68 LRVs, where seats are placed along the long sides of the car, rather than lateral seating, where seats face the front and back of the vehicle.[15] The longitudinal seating creates wider aisles, is preferred by advocates for the disabled, provides more room for standing passengers, and may accommodate bicycles on board, as the bicycle policy only allows folding bikes on board.[15]

However, in "future fleet" of 68 LRV4s, the long benches were flat and lacked the individual seating pockets (dubbed "butt dents" by riders) used in the Breda longitudinal benches.[16] In a November 2019 report, Muni provided details for a retrofit of the already-delivered "future fleet": half the flat longitudinal benches will be replaced with single transverse seats, and the other half will be replaced with individual longitudinal seats. For the "replacement fleet" of 151 cars, 50 will be delivered with seating to match the retrofitted "future fleet" of 68; the remaining 101 will have double transverse seats instead of the single transverse seats.[12] The seats also will be lowered, enabling riders shorter than 5 ft 4 in (163 cm) to rest their feet on the floor.[17]

Doors

In April 2019, funding for additional cars was suspended after two notable incidents were reported in local media. The San Francisco Examiner reported that on April 12, after a passenger's hand became trapped in the door, she was dragged along as the car departed the station platform; although she managed to pull herself free, she then lost her balance, fell from the platform, striking the train, and landed unconscious on the tracks.[18][19] It was the fourth reported incident where passengers were trapped by doors on the LRV4; of those, two resulted in injuries.[18]

As a temporary measure, the rear doors on LRV4s were locked shut to prevent additional trapped passengers; the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to withhold $62 million for additional cars approximately one week after the door and shear pin issues.[20] Muni began testing a fix to the single panel doors on May 16th, car no. 2036 began testing the improved sensitive edges, with one operator driving and another monitoring the rear door.[21] Muni announced the fixes to the doors had been implemented successfully and normal operation resumed in June 2019.[19][22] In the original door sensor design, only one sensing strip was installed on the interior surface of the door edge to detect objects or hands; two more edge strips were added to fix the issue, both on the exterior surface of the door edge.[14]^:8–10

Couplers

In a separate incident which also occurred on April 12, a shear pin failed at the yard when a two-car train was being uncoupled after leaving service for the day. Each coupler is designed with two shear pins;[14]^:11 the shear pin is designed to break to protect the coupling mechanism. An inspection found another shear pin had failed on another uncoupled car; Muni suspended coupled operation of the LRV4s as a result.[23] The door and coupler issues prompted the California Public Utilities Commission to launch an investigation.[24] More extensive inspections later showed that approximately ​¹⁄₃ of the couplers had some degree of damage or defect.[25]

The center of the coupler is maintained at a height of 17.5 inches (440 mm) above top of rail, typically by shimming the truck relative to the carbody after truing the wheels, not by adjusting the coupler;[14]^:11 the coupler adjustment screw is designed to change the inclination of the coupler, not the height.[14]^:14 Unclear instructions led to adjustment of the coupler height via the inclination screw; this in turn pushed the coupler lateral stop bracket out of position, enabling excessive lateral travel, which caused the shear pins to break.[14]^:12–13 Maintenance instructions were updated, the lateral stop bracket assembly was redesigned, and the travel of the coupler adjustment screw was limited to fix the issue.[14]^:14–15 The redesigned couplers went into service in June 2019.[19][22]

In December 2019, Muni announced it would run uncoupled cars again because the new shear pins became unreliable after three months' use; a redesign was being studied.[26] The issue was discovered after a shear pin failed in fatigue; although the two cars remained coupled, the operator "felt like her train was being continually rear ended". Siemens reported the issue affects all 68 cars in the "future fleet".[27] Siemens and the manufacturer of the couplers, Voith, identified potential causes for the fatigue failure of the shear pins. The existing design is sufficient to allow coupled operation of the cars for at least 90 days, and new shear pins were being provided as a warranty item until the issue has been resolved.[14]^:16

Brakes

At the Board of Supervisors meeting in April 2019, Muni officials also reported the wheels on the LRV4s required resurfacing before their expected end-of-life because of the use of emergency brakes, which are engaged once a week, on average.[28] At any given time, only half (or fewer) of the LRV4s were available for service because of wheels with flat spots caused by emergency braking.[29]

In typical operation, the LRV is both accelerated and braked using a "T" handle controller at the operator's left hand; an emergency stop can be commanded using either the red 'mushroom button' on the forward control panel, or by the "T" handle. For the Breda LRV2/3, the "T" handle is pulled out and twisted 90 degrees for the emergency stop; for the Siemens LRV4, the "T" handle is only pulled out. This difference meant that for the Breda LRVs, it was usually quicker to use the 'mushroom button' to command an emergency stop; there was essentially no difference for the Siemens LRVs.[14]^:16–17 Because the 'stick' brakes on the prior Breda LRV2/3 cars were prone to failure, operators were trained to use the 'mushroom button' when encountering obstacles on the tracks.[28] However, using the 'mushroom button' on the LRV4s, as operators were trained, locked-up the wheels[30] and flattened the wheel surface.[14]^:18

A plan was announced in November 2019 to add track brakes to the powered trucks; the design for the track brakes was submitted to the CPUC for approval.[12] Track brakes were already equipped on the center (unpowered) truck, but the combination of the wheel brakes and the existing single-truck track brake led to flat-spotting the wheels each time an emergency stop was commanded. Testing of an LRV4 retrofitted with additional track brakes showed the rate of flat-spotting wheels during emergency stops fell from nearly 100% to just 0.4%.[14]^:18–19

References

1. "Reference datasheet - S200 San Francisco" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-10-12.
2. "Reference datasheet - S200 Calgary" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-10-12.
3. "Trams and Light Rail". Siemens.
4. Schmidt, Colleen; White, Ryan (September 11, 2013). "Black and white and red all over – Calgary's new LRT cars revealed". CTV News. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
5. "Calgary to order more Mask LRVs from Siemens". International Rail Journal. March 22, 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
6. "New Mask CTrain car arrives". Calgary Transit. January 14, 2016. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
7. Cabanatuan, Michael (September 20, 2014). "Mayor signs deal for new fleet of Muni Metro railcars". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
8. Vantuono, William C. (June 16, 2015). "Siemens S200 SF previews in San Francisco; more LRVs ordered". Railway Age. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
9. "Resolution No. 170620-081" (PDF). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Board of Directors. June 20, 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
10. "Resolution No. 14-120" (PDF). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Board of Directors. July 15, 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
11. "Resolution No. 15-019" (PDF). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Board of Directors. July 15, 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
12. Kirschbaum, Julie (November 19, 2019). LRV4 Project Update (PDF) (Report). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
13. "First New Muni State-of-the-Art Train Makes Debut in Service" (Press release). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. November 17, 2017. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017.
14. T.Y. Lin International (February 20, 2020). Program Management Oversight Report for SFMTA Light Rail Vehicle Procurement (PDF) (Report). San Francisco County Transportation Authority. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
15. Thompson, Walter (May 18, 2016). "These new Muni Metro cars should be ready to roll next year". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
16. Rosen, Michael (January 17, 2019). "People are upset about an unexpected missing feature on new Muni trains". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
17. Rodriguez, Joe Fitzgerald (March 11, 2020). "Munit to accelerate purchase of 219 new train cars". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
18. Rodriguez, Joe Fitzgerald (April 17, 2019). "New Muni trains delivered with defective doors". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
19. Rodriguez, Joe Fitzgerald (June 25, 2019). "Muni fixes faulty train doors, couplers on new trains". Retrieved June 25, 2019.
20. Swan, Rachel (April 23, 2019). "SF delays $62 million for Muni's new rail fleet after a slew of mishaps". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
21. Rodriguez, Joe Fitzgerald (May 15, 2019). "Muni testing fix for its malfunctioning train car doors". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
22. "SFMTA Announces All LRV4 Doors and Two-Car Trains Back In Service" (Press release). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. June 25, 2019.
23. Van Derbeken, Jaxon (April 17, 2019). "Muni Scrambles to Inspect New Fleet After Coupler Failure". NBC Bay Area. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
24. Rodriguez, Joe Fitzgerald (April 19, 2019). "UPDATE: State launches investigation into Muni doors that trapped and dragged a woman". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
25. Swan, Rachel (May 8, 2019). "Muni officials say railcar-linking issue on new fleet is bigger than they thought". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
26. Asimov, Nanette (December 12, 2019). "Muni discovers another problem with new trains, so SF riders can expect a crowded commute Thursday". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
27. Rodriguez, Joe Fitzgerald (December 12, 2019). "Vital link between two Muni train cars 'failed' while carrying passengers". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
28. Van Derbeken, Jaxon (April 23, 2019). "SF Supervisors Hear Muni is Besieged by Bugs in New Trains". NBC Bay Area. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
29. Rodriguez, Joe Fitzgerald (April 23, 2019). "Braking problems putting Muni's new trains out of commission". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
30. The Breda LRV2/3 do not lock up the wheels in an emergency stop when using either the "T" handle or the 'mushroom'. The Siemens LRV4 also do not lock up the wheels during an emergency stop using the "T" handle, but do lock up the wheels using the 'mushroom'.

External links

Media related to Siemens S200 at Wikimedia Commons