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Comment by trebligdivad | Hacker News Reader

Manchester's Metrolink uses Bombardier M5000's ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_M5000 ) that seem to have worked OK. But I do wonder - is there anyone other than Bombardier who makes tram/underground vehicles these days?

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>anyone other than Bombardier who makes tram/underground vehicles these days?

See this link [1] for a summary of the current situation (start about halfway down). It doesn't look great. Nippon/Sharyo is going to be at a disadvantage in bidding because their Amtrak contracts with California and Illinois were cancelled due to the prototype cars failing safety tests. It looks like Siemens will play a part in the replacement for those, which perhaps may convince them to try out transit cars in the USA. Competition would be good.

What we have now is CRRC Sifang America (a Chinese state-owned company) has built a factory in Illinois and has orders from Chicago and Boston. The first prototypes are expected this year. We will see if they can deliver.

[1] http://www.chicago-l.org/trains/roster/7000.html

> is there anyone other than Bombardier who makes tram/underground vehicles these days?

Siemens, Alstom, and Mitsubishi off the top of my head. There probably is some Chinese companies but I’m not familiar with them.

Pesa in Poland makes great LRT vehicles too, but they're mostly known in Poland and other Eastern European countries.

Also Hyundai Rotem https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Rotem

Ansaldo Breda in Italy.

Edit: turns out this business was sold to Hitachi. I didn't know that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_Heavy_Industries_Roll... Making for NYC Subway. Hope it improves reliability

Hitachi Italy make robot trains used in Rome and Copenhagen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AnsaldoBreda_Driverless_Metro

Swiss Stadler makes really nice ones, and certainly China has to have own production.

As mentioned Siemens (SF Muni) and Stadler (SMART) both make trains. Both have had some fairly serious problems, but none quite as bad as BART is having.

Bart trains are very custom due to them using a track with not used anywhere else in the world, for unknown reasons.

I’d always assumed they were broad gauge for added stability if an earthquake hit. Are there other reasons?

Japan uses standard gauge and has much bigger earthquakes than California.

The worry was that gusts would blow the trains off the track when crossing the Golden Gate. The trains were made wider for stability. The line across the Golden Gate was never built.

Crossing the Golden Gate was never in the cards. Marin County was never part of BART. And the Bay crossing is an underwater tube.

Alstom did only a few years ago, I assume they're still in that business today but not sure.

Yeah, Alstom is supplying for the Ottawa LRT [1]. They've been plagued by their own issues.

[1] https://www.alstom.com/our-solutions/rolling-stock/citadis-s...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alstom_Citadis_Spirit

Siemens for instance.

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