Siemens nabs another big light-rail deal

Siemens Corp.’s Sacramento light-rail factory announced another significant contract Thursday, grabbing a deal to manufacture 27 new cars for a system serving Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

The contract is worth $118 million, according to the Metropolitan Council, the agency that oversees mass transit in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Expected to be completed in 2019, the new cars will add to the 59 vehicles Siemens originally built for the Twin Cities system, and five more that were ordered last fall and are in production.

The new cars will feature ice cutters to remove sleet from overhead wires, a redesign to aid passengers with bicycles and wheelchairs, and other improvements.

It’s the latest contract for the French Road facility, which employs nearly 1,000 workers and is responsible for one-third of all the light-rail cars operating in North America. Just a month ago it received a $554 million contract from Seattle’s mass transit system.

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 8:35 AM with the headline "Siemens nabs another big light-rail deal."