[IMAGE]SFMTA-2.jpg[/IMAGE]The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which operates the Municipal Railway (Muni), unveiled a refurbished light rail vehicle (LRV) that is part of the $56 million contract to rehabilitate 143 Breda LRVs.

The contract, awarded last September, is part of the LRV Doors and Steps Reconditioning Project, which allocates a total of $9 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) economic stimulus funding to directly improve vehicle availability, service reliability and performance by rehabilitating nearly all of Muni's LRVs.

The first completed LRV is currently being inspected by SFMTA personnel in order to ensure that all issues are addressed and that the rehabilitation of the remaining 142 vehicles is done correctly by AnsaldoBreda, the manufacturer.

The LRV Doors and Steps Reconditioning Project will rehabilitate several key systems on 143 of the SFMTA's Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs), to their original operating specifications. The scope of the project includes rebuilding the doors and steps system, the automatic couplers, the air supply units and the traction motors as well as replacing the articulation pins in the center of the vehicles and the articulation wire harnesses. This effort will maintain component life and improve vehicle reliability.