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The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) will receive four new streetcars under a $17.2 million contract with Siemens Industry Inc.

Scheduled for delivery in September 2012, the vehicles will be the first new streetcars in Atlanta since 1949. The contract marks Siemens’ entry into the U.S. streetcar market, Siemens officials said in a prepared statement. The cars will begin operating in 2013.

“The Atlanta streetcar project will keep the city of Atlanta competitive with other cities by improving our transit connectivity, boosting our tourism industry, helping local businesses and building a more sustainable future,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said.

The streetcars will be built at Siemens’ rail-car and locomotive plant in Sacramento, Calif., but the cars’ propulsion system and other major components will be produced at Siemens’ plant in Atlanta suburb Alpharetta, Ga.

The streetcars are part of the first phase of a planned regional streetcar and light-rail system in Atlanta.