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The passenger-rail car market is cyclical in nature. Large transit agencies place orders for several hundred cars within just a few years of each other, then those orders give way to smaller ones placed by agencies serving mid-sized cities.

The market is following that cycle to a tee.

“There have been some large replacement orders made in large northeast cities in the past several years — New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Toronto,” says Bombardier Transportation Vice President of Marketing, Product Planning and Sales-North America Bob Furniss.

Car builders currently are filling the last of the mega-orders — Bombardier is delivering 234 multi-level vehicles to New Jersey Transit, and building 406 rapid transit vehicles for the Chicago Transit Authority and 234 subway cars for the Toronto Transit Commission, while next year Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. will begin delivering 340 cars to the Port Authority Trans-Hudson.

Smaller, but significant
Car builders also are keeping busy by filling smaller orders. In March, Sumitomo Corp. of America and its partner, Nippon Sharyo Ltd., obtained a $48 million contract from the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District to build 14 gallery-type electrical multiple unit (EMU) commuter-rail cars. Accommodating up to 140 passengers, the vehicles will replace the agency’s older, single-level passenger cars.

The cars will be similar to 26 EMUs the car builders manufactured for the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corp. in 2005. The contract includes an option to purchase up to six additional cars. The vehicles are scheduled to be delivered between December 2008 and March 2009.

Sumitomo and Nippon Sharyo also are filling a Virginia Railway Express order. Last fall, the commuter-rail agency exercised an option on a May 2005 contract to purchase 50 additional bi-level passenger cars to replace existing single-level cars. Combined with the initial order for 11 cars, the contract now is valued at $109 million.

Meanwhile, GO Transit’s board recently approved plans to purchase an additional 20 bi-level cars from Bombardier Transportation, which is currently delivering the last of an initial 20-car order to the agency.

The road ahead
And last month, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority board approved purchasing another 16 Silverliner V regional rail cars from United Transit Systems L.L.C., a consortium comprising Sojitz Corp. of America and Rote Co. The authority will exercise an option on a March 2006 contract for 104 vehicles. The $29.8 million option will bring the total contract value to $274.1 million.

There are several more mid-size orders on the horizon, as well.

This month, Montreal’s Agence Métropolitaine de Transport is expected to solicit bids for high-capacity commuter-rail coaches, says Bombardier’s Furniss.

In summer, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority expects to seek bids for 128 7000 Series rail cars. And the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority plans to purchase 38 diesel locomotives and 75 bi-level commuter-rail coaches.

Furniss also expects NJ Transit to purchase additional multi-level vehicles this year. And, Miami-Dade Transit officials currently are determining whether to refurbish older cars, purchase new cars, or both, he says.

What are transit agencies looking for in their passenger cars these days? Capacity, capacity, capacity, says Furniss. Ridership continues to grow and many agencies are running out of track space to accommodate additional trains, so they need to make the most of the car capacity available.