Who else is buying light-rail cars from Siemens Sacramento? Look south

Siemens Corp.’s Sacramento plant has secured another major contract for light-rail vehicles, this one a $187 million job from San Diego’s mass transit system.

The deal announced Tuesday by Siemens is the south Sacramento plant’s second big contract in barely a week, following a $118 million project to supply cars to the Twin Cities transportation system in Minnesota.

Under the latest contract, the Siemens plant will assemble 45 of its S70 light-rail cars for the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System. The new cars will mean Siemens has supplied 244 cars for the San Diego system, making San Diego the largest light-rail customer in the United States for Siemens.

Siemens didn’t disclose the contract price, but agenda materials from the transit system’s board meeting last month show the contract is worth $187 million.

The first cars are expected to be delivered in late 2018.

The Siemens plant, owned by the German industrial conglomerate, employs nearly 1,000 workers.

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 9:49 AM with the headline "Who else is buying light-rail cars from Siemens Sacramento? Look south."