Seriously - these ought to have the ability to *run on* and charge from standard overhead electrification, so a system to aupport them could be built out over time.
@@yankeeclipperyt well at least they made the decision to abandon their original idea of converting an old EMD freight locomotive into a battery train. That's hardly any major improvement but it's a half baby step in the right direction at least. Good on Stadler for being smart enough to put a pantograph on this thing for the ever so slight chance someone with a half a brain cell decides to work for Metra.
@@daniellewis1789 of course they should . . . But by the time Metra or any authority beyond San Francisco got around to trying electrification these will be life expired.
State of the art trains . Smooth ride , extremely comfortable and nice exterior . In Italy , nation where i live , we know Stadler products since 2005 , and right now they practically run in the whole country covering intercity , regional and local services ( coming soon for freight trains ..... )
In Poland we use the Stadler FLIRTs often, whether be it long distance PKP Intercity with a max speed of 160km/h or the more common Łódzka Kolej Aglomeracyjna. Amazing trains and they sound great
great to see european manufacturers entering the US railway market, ever since the last century train transport has been neglected severely in north america...
European manufacturers, including Siemens, Alstom, Talgo, Ansaldo/Breda have been here for multiple decades now. Even Stadler has been here for several years now.
The U.S. had domestic manufacturers at one time not owned by globalist Eurotrash legacy families. Budd and Pullman built long lasting equipment without too much proprietary, delicate sht. Over subsidized and taxed transportation and land use was the death of it all.
My company just put these in service here in Germany, I am a instructor for train engineers, also teaching train engineers on these trains and can say they are fantastic! So far we had only little problems with them. However in our trains the traction batteries are not placed in a separate middle car, they are located both under the passenger cabin and on the roof of one of the carriages. Range is pretty good, already managed to drive 200 kilometers and still had 23% battery left.
@@2008tourer 0 to 90% in 30 minutes, charging with a constant 220kW up to 90%. It's pretty fast, when you change directions at the terminus and charge for just 10 minutes you already go up from 50 to roughly 80 for example, insane ...
@@widget787 oh wow, if such "low" charging speeds is enough then efficiency must be pretty good? How do you measure the energy consumption? kWh/100 km? Or something else?
@@MilwaukeeF40C Yes it should be. Caltrain is finally becoming a modern system thanks to Stadler‘s EMUs. Y‘all will be forever stuck in the railroad Stone Age without foreign manufacturers.
Stadler is really conquering the market for passenger trains now with the expansion outside Europe, we have Flirt trainsets for several years now here in the southeast of the Netherlands and they are a pleasure to travel on, fast, smooth and quiet. The battery option is great for a local non electrified line where I live, where they want to replace the older Stadler GTW diesel with new electric trains after electrification. These battery powered trains are probably a more cost effective solution for this line instead of electrification.
I don't care if "real" electric trains are "greener" than battery trains. The lack of smell and noise from diesel engines alone makes all the difference I need.
@@ncard00 Battery trains are an intermediate step to true electric trains at least. Also, when the train company has build the small overhead wire areas where you charge the train - it's later easy to electrify the gaps between them, because you have already put the needed electric lines in place, you only need to raise the capacity of the transformers.
Stadler FLIRTs have been roaming in Europe for quite some time and they're actually great trains if they are maintained properly The ones I ride for commuting to work still use the overhead HV lines for power but the ride quality and capacity are quite nice
They're a few years away still, but I'm looking forward to riding these when they go into service! I hope they can end up being used on Metra's other lines to improve frequency/service during off-peak times. In particular, it would be great to have a viable alternative to the CTA Blue Line to get between O'Hare and downtown. And maybe (dreaming I know) an orbital line linking some of the outer spoke stations.
Between the Canadian National Railway and the other five major railroads in the USA and Chicago the chance to use the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, and the Indiana Harbor Belt as a pathway for Metra, the chance to use them as a commuter railroad has long since passed in the early 1990's. Would have been a good idea, but Metra's president was more interested in scamming everyone for vacation time pay. Incidentally said president jumped in front of a Metra train to go kill himself.
Very popular in North Texas, we have them in town (Denton Texas) DCTA called the A-Train, Ft Worth FWTA has them. Down in Central Texas, Austin CMTA. In the Dallas area DART ordered 8 sets for the Cotton Belt Line. They have a futuristic look very quiet, has a comfortable ride, and huge windows to look out.
Glad to see another state using Stadler trains. And that it's battery powered opens so many opportunities for other cities/states to use these without having to spend more money using catenary.
@@pauljensen5699 You can a. couple more trains together and b. you can also just put two more passenger cars between the cab and the battery car. And yes, Stadler even has bilevel passenger cars for that! FLIRTs are easily adaptable in the depot to the need of the company. So this test trains can be the start of a new era of METRA
@@acmenipponair I doubt Metra has the budget to purchase enough to replace even one 15+ bilevel car train. And nothing with jacobs bogies is "easily adaptable." You shouldn't need a crane to change a consist.
@@acmenipponair Someone doesn't understand railroading very good. It's not a N scale car you're picking up, it's a 50 to 85 ton car on jacks or a crane. Haven't seen the Bi-levels yet, but just remember, you gotta pick it up with the even more weight of a second deck. "Easily adaptable", you have never been inside a car shop or a rip track.
I’m excited to see these in action when they arrive. These would be great to use on the North Central Service line, specifically between Union Station and the O’hare transfer station. It would be much faster and more convenient than riding the blue line especially if Metra increases the frequency of the trains.
Can't wait for my CalTrain cars to make the switch, while it's not a rechargable one like this, they've built overhead lines from San Francisco to San Jose, I've been on the KISS trains and they're very clean looking inside and useful. I just hope that the population of the area keeps them looking so clean and high tech that they currently look.
For everyone talking about why doesn't METRA just string up catenary: They don't own the lines that these will run on. They lease them from the Class 1 railroads and those don't want overhead wires so it's not up to METRA.
@@donnyyario1726 We tried to do that, twice. World War One, and again in the 1970's. Please go read the last chapters of the book "The Wreck of the Penn Central" There is a terrible reason even BR and JR went private, even in countries that were almost custom made for a railroad network.
@@donnyyario1726 The problem aren't the owners themselves. The freight car companies would love to electrify their tracks. But there are Problems: a. The distances are huge - and not everywhere in the west of the USA you have a power plant for train power nearby. Which means they would not only have to electrify their freight lines but also have to build the power plants and power lanes to get the electricity to the tracks. And we talk here about thousand of miles of wires! b. If they would electrify the tracks by the standards modern electric locos have - they couldn't run double decker container cars anymore. The distance between the electric wire and the top of the train need to be around 80cm to 1m (2,5-3feet). Otherwise electric current from the wire can spontanously spread to the cars, make a short circuit. But that would mean either more trains or longer trains needed for transporting the goods the freight operators handle each day, or having more trains on the tracks which would mean more train operators to pay. c. that means you would have to rebuild parts of the track system - so that on one track areas the trains can pass, because when you either have longer trains or more trains, the number of shunt tracks that exist now and their frequency is too low. That's why the freight companies haven't electrified their networks yet, and that although one electric loco can have more horse power than 3 EMD diesel locos.
@@pauljensen5699 JR didn't had problems going private with their rails, but that's because the JR companies run nearly exclusively their trains on their tracks, no private companies involved, and the same goes for the other companies, only the Tokyo Metro, Toei Subway and Osaka Subway also have private companies or JR trains on their tracks. And yes, privatization of the tracks is NOT a good idea most of the time. Especially not when you have rivalling companies having to use the same tracks.
Yeah KISS: Komfortabler Innovativer Spurtstarker S-Bahn-Zug (comfortable, innovative, sprint-capable suburban train) WINK: Wandelbarer Innovativer Nahverkehrs-Kurzzug ( convertible, innovative short train for local transport) TINA: Total Integrierter Niederflur-Antrieb (Totally Integrated Low-Floor Drive) SMILE: Schneller Mehrsystemfähiger Innovativer Leichter Expresszug (speedy multi-system innovative lightweight express train) The FLIRT name is also German but just happens to have an English translation that also fits the acronym
I feel like Stadler is getting a foothold, and slowly, US agencies are buying these state of the art trains. I wish the MBTA would buy these trains, although the floor height would have to be custom built to be compatible with the 48 inch platforms, and optionally have flip out or retractable steps to be usable at stations with 8 inch high platforms as well. Stadler should build a version of this train for use in the northeast, which can be used on the MBTA, MNRR, LIRR, NJT, SEPTA, etc.
The scharfenberg couplers on the front and back of the Stadler's probably means its not limited to 4 car trains at most. So they may continue coupling stadler trainsets to each other as they see fit!
They can couple two sets together and I'm sure there may be a KISS set as an option in a few years. TBF the ridership may not support it though, but they should order some anyway.
@@starrwulfe From what I read in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Island_District (original source lost) "Metra has expressed a desire to electrify and modernize the line if funding became available". Seems like they don't have the means to electrify so they get battery units as the second best option.
I wonder the same thing. I've seen Videos of Metra and they seem to operate trains with at least 5-6 double deck carriages. Maybe there are lines with less demand where they will operate?
Also die RB 82 war sehr lange eine Strecke die mit einen Cordia LINT gefahren wurde. Jetzt vor kurzen sind sie endlich auf den elektrischen Akku Zug, von Stadler, umgestiegen. Geiles Ding echt.
It's clean in the sense it doesn't have emissions. The electricity has to still be sourced from renewable sources, and these trains has to run for a couple of years for the emissions contributed by the production of the battery to offset. But is it better than the old diesel engines they got? Absolutely
@@nyxwWhere are the "renewable sources"? Hate to break it to ya kiddo, it's going to be powered by Wyoming coal. That big wind turbine farm in Indiana off I-65 has already been claimed by Subaru.
@@Gfynbcyiokbg8710 Tell me how you are going to charge the batteries. Outside of uranium, only natural gas beats diesel fuel. And neither, as a locomotive engineer, would I feel all to good about using inside a locomotive. Yes, Big Nasty Stinky Fart did try natural gas. Tried.
it is funny how the usa is goin down since they dont have those german scientists anymore. since then everything that is considered normal in the rest of the world is something new for them...
Nobody wanted it in the US. Never was needed. What this is, is a fast and cheap way to say "we are expanding light rail" without really expanding light rail.
Where is this going to use? I think that building for overhead eletricity is just plainly better, but as long a the US is unwilling to invest in that, this might be a good intermediary solution.
Lmao it is funny how this is big leap in the US but every day life in the EU But come on, that is so american to not do proper electrification (obviously nothing to do with Stadler) 😅
@@pauljensen5699 because Europe's freight trains don't need to drive from 1 side of the continent to the other? European cargo trains are mostly between 650 and 800m longer so they can fit in between the passenger train services. So we instead transport with a lot of different freight trains, and India even has catenaries high enough to drive doublestacked container trains with an electric locomotive
evo3s75 "because Europe's freight trains don't need to drive from 1 side of the continent to the other?" Actually that is a severe and studied economic limitation in Europe. There is enough continental and intercontinental (Asia) shipping to justify much more long distance, cross border freight rail utilization. And for those worried about climate change, a bigger impact than passenger transport. Shippers largely blame bureaucracy, labor regulation, and lack of integration between state rail companies. There are good articles if you do the digging.
CLEARLY aimed at the USA, becasue we just can't get into gear about electrification here, so instead we will purchase heavier trains w/ battery cars that are more limited. Edit: oh yea no sh*t, I didn't see the Metra livery, so the idea is Metra can run this on electric mode the NEC Penn line and battery mode on ther other two? Cool but seems silly since there's no half electric / half diesel Metra lines, but whatevs.
No point dragging a heavy battery around all the time in case the catenary breaks. Plus, if it does break, the line will have to close until it’s repaired anyway.
@@blue9multimediagroup then just buy out the tracks, I find it ridiculous that a commuter network in the USA’s third largest city relies on the mercy of profit seeking freight railroads
Ok but which lines? Cuz the Metra Electric District already has overhead lines. The south shore line? It has trains similar to these. Whats the plan man?
And if Chicago would now even electricy their METRA network, they could even buy electrified FLIRTs, that are the work horses in Europe since 15 years already in the regional and local train services, with speeds up to 160 kph.
The FLIRT is amazing, having to ride quite a few times. But I wonder why the livery for the train must have the red and white stripes on the front? It takes away the attractiveness of the design and kinda set it as "THIS IS A DANGEROUS THING GET AWAY!!!", which to be fair it is, but still, no other country uses that unless perhaps a freight train. That would make more sense.
Why not more than panto-charger , like bruh , i mean i guess for like gen 1 but there really needs to be full electric with high reach pantos on batch 2
i wish montreal would get these for the exo train lines but exo recently bought some (probably) crappy trains from china so sadly that most likely wont happen :(
Tragic 😂 Just because people are in charge of something *(Metra for instance)* that doesn't exactly mean they make good decisions, or know how to maintain something that's existing, operating well, and is expanding. . . Somehow, everyone forgets this lesson right after telling it about other things It's like having a cloth pulled over their eyes, and they just go along with shit while believing everything people do is good. . . Lol
@@mamarussellthepie3995 battery electric locomotives still suck, but the new stadler trains in the us are beginning to be a good thing because metra gallery cars and locomotives are beginning to reach the end of their service life and for the. f40s they are 20 years past their service life
Metra had a good business minded board at one time with railroad experience. That's where the extreme fleet standardization came from and contentness with slow change. Like everything else in Illinois, it has devolved to political cronies and activists who need each other (and their broader voting constituency) for their own agendas.
@griffinstrains So what? It's all just metal and welds. . . There is not actually anything concrete stopping them from putting in the effort to use and refab existing equipment other than political pressure from internet rabbitholes and such to replace functioning equipment. . . Lol F40s are getting old? They literally just got a big fleet of upgraded F59PHIs and refabed SD70s! If that's not enough, literally just throw a new PM in there. xD Traction motors are getting old? Just get new ones! XD Old Gallery cars need new metal in places or new air lines or etc? Just refab shit. . . Lol. The only guys really winning are the ones making $ off selling overpriced micro trainsets to metra! 🤣 The lack of creativity in people that just shows in pushes like this time after time is just so horribly cringe and moronic that it makes no actual sense. . . Lol
@@Gfynbcyiokbg8710 First of all, the rest of the world isn't the United States. Two, the United States uses railroad cars (freight and passenger) that are far higher than the rest of the world. Three, how big is the USA. Most countries are far smaller than the US.
@@pauljensen5699 we are talking about a commuter rail system, not the entire US. Also India has an even larger loading guage on some freight lines than the largest in the US and still manages to have overhead electrification. Yeah the rest of the world isn't the US, because the rest of the world is much poorer but still manages to have much nicer infrastructure So stop making excuses
The NWB, part of Transdev in northern Germany acquired new Stadler Trains last year. I've seen them being tested here, I've been on one that had its very first passenger service on that day. I've seen the very first fails like doors failing or get this, the computer refusing to start! They're a lot better than the Alstom Coradia Continental that were in use on my daily commute, being much more modern, comfortable and spacious. but nothing yet has beaten the Coradia LINT 41. The LINT feels a lot more open with its high ceiling and big windows. Sure, it's a Diesel and maybe on the more noisy side of things but i always wonder why they don't build more LINT style electric trains..
Well, the LINT 41 might be a proven trainset - but it's a diesel trainset. and yes, the first Flirts had much problems, software problems, hardware problems - but that's seemingly with every train at the beginning. @breaklux3823: He is talking about this FLIRT Akku version. FLIRT 3 is also running in north Germany without problems now, but the AKKU trains still are in their practise test phase.
Cute but still doesn't address the fact that Metra is useless for getting anywhere that isn't the loop or whatever stops are along the way. Circle lines are decades overdue.
I don't know why you would abuse yourself to relying on Metra to get from suburb to suburb. No circlejerkline will ever match the nominal 1 hour drive you can usually do within 6+ counties of the metropolitan core outside of rush hour. Easily 12 counties from a strategic home base.
Just. Electrify. Your. Lines. Battery powered or hydrogen trains are hopefully not the future. We have already solved how to efficiently power our trains, and that ain't it.
They understand, their just cheapskates. They would rater swim in a pile of money than invest in themselves. Interesting most countries have electric freight trains. North America is the exception. @@blue9multimediagroup
@blue9multimediagroup some companies abroad did so ... LKAB invested and electrified its network more than a century ago. Despite being in the arctic, rural and partly mountainous area they built a power station and electrified their line. With electric locomotives, they were able to pull longer and heavier trains, resulting in more money per train ... in the long run it definitely payed out for them
