Upon arrival in San Bernardino County, all three DMU vehicles are scheduled to undergo extensive testing on SBCTA’s infrastructure. In September 2017, SBCTA ordered three diesel-electric low floor multiple unit FLIRTs from Stadler for the Arrow passenger rail service, also known as the Redlands Passenger Rail Project.
The trains operate on a nine-mile commuter route with five stations in the corridor between the San Bernardino Transit Center and the University of Redlands.
“We are pleased to deliver these state-of-the-art vehicles to San Bernardino County this year. We are confident that our DMUs will allow SBCTA to provide excellent passenger rail service to their customers and that passengers will enjoy travelling on the new trains after successful completion of testing,” said Martin Ritter, CEO Stadler US.
“This is just the beginning of a longstanding relationship between Stadler and SBCTA. As we finish up the DMU project we have already started the next project for SBCTA: the hydrogen train FLIRT H2,” said Ritter.
The design of the DMU vehicles allows operation of a mixed fleet including freight trains. The DMUs comply with Alternative Vehicle Technology (AVT) requirements of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and meet the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Buy America requirements.
“This initial shipment represents the culmination of a lot of hard work and collaboration to improve transit options in San Bernardino County,” said Curt Hagman, president of SBCTA. “It is also the pivotal first step to bringing cleaner transit technologies that will effectively move our residents throughout the region.”
In addition to the three DMUs, in 2019 SBCTA and Stadler signed the first ever contract to supply a hydrogen-powered train, to run in the United States. The hydrogen train FLIRT H2 is currently in development in Stadler’s headquarter in Switzerland and is planned to be introduced in 2024 as part of Arrow.