OKC deal with streetcar manufacturer puts tram plans into motion — for a cost
A new contract for the MAPS 3 streetcars would preserve plans to begin service in mid-2018 but, as expected, drive up costs for the multimillion-dollar trams.
Oklahoma City finalized a contract this week with Brookville Equipment Corp., of Brookville, Pa. The company’s president, Marion H. Van Fosson, signed the 48-page agreement Tuesday.
Total cost for five of Brookville’s Liberty streetcars is $24.9 million. Czech company Inekon Group had offered to build five of its Trio streetcars for $23 million.
The city council approved a contract with Inekon last year but turned
to Brookville, which finished second in the evaluation of manufacturers, after Inekon failed to produce required financial guarantees.
The city council still must approve the contract with Brookville.
An added wrinkle is that the city now plans to buy six streetcars.
If the contract wins approval and the city gives Brookville the go-ahead to begin work by April 1, the first streetcar would be scheduled to arrive by Oct. 1, 2017. Others would arrive monthly between about Feb. 1 and May 1, 2018.
The contract provides for the city to order a sixth car, which presumably could be delivered in the summer of 2018, about when service is to begin.
Plans are to begin construction of a maintenance facility and begin laying rails this year.
Powered by electricity from overhead wires and batteries, the MAPS 3 “modern” streetcars will run on rails embedded in the streets, sharing the road with cars and buses.
One goal is for streetcars to run on batteries, or “off wire,” on substantial parts of the downtown route.
Brookville has two Liberty models in service in Dallas, with two more on order. The company also is supplying streetcars for Detroit and Milwaukee.
Brookville’s price is $4.8 million each for the first five streetcars and $4 million for the sixth.
Oklahoma City will spend up to $900,000 for spare parts, bringing the cost for its six Liberty streetcars to $28.9 million.
As with the previous Inekon contract, the Brookville agreement requires a two-year warranty on batteries.
Streetcar frames will be warranted for 10 years and traction motors for four years.
The city council voted Tuesday for a revised route, designed specifically to serve the convention center complex to be built south of Chesapeake Energy Arena.
The revision requires a sixth streetcar to provide acceptable service, consultants said.
Plans had been for a 4.6-mile loop through the central business district, linking Midtown and Bricktown.
That route would have gone past the city’s preferred convention center site, west of the arena.
Plans began to change about a year ago, when efforts to acquire the preferred site collapsed.
Once the city council shifted to the new site, south of the arena along Robinson Avenue, consultants drew up options for a streetcar route to serve the convention center.
The council settled on a route this week that will have streetcars travel along the new Oklahoma City Boulevard, which will follow the alignment of the old Interstate 40 through downtown.
Streetcars will stop near the convention center and MAPS 3 downtown park. Shifting the route south from Reno Avenue also is expected to support residential and commercial development in the now-blighted district west of the new park.
Reconfiguring the route and adding a third of a mile of track preserves the main-line loop through the central business district, now the “blue line,” while creating a “red line” with direct service between the convention center and Bricktown.
Total “service” length on the two lines will be 6.9 miles.
Consultants said the revised route would offer flexibility for frequent service — every seven minutes — to the convention center. Streetcars to handle downtown crowds attending events could be added.
By doing a better job of serving municipal parking garages, they said, the revised route would offer a “park once” option for riders who choose to park downtown then ride the streetcar to a range of destinations.