According to the FRA, which has promoted the adoption of the system by a handful of railroads so far, the system complements existing safety programs, builds a positive safety culture, creates an early warning system, focuses on problems instead of people, provides an incentive for learning from errors and targets the root cause of an issue, not the symptom.
Additionally, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority has reduced its estimates by $569,000 for both streetcar fare revenue and what it believes it can capture from those who want to advertise on the vehicles.
Some of the benefits discussed by a CityLab report, include a 70% savings in staff, higher frequencies, significant operational savings and more room for passengers.
While an audit found that one of every 10 light rail passengers may not be paying fares, Metro Transit reports 94% compliance on its Green Line and 97% compliance on its Blue Line. Moving away from an honor system and installing turnstiles could cost the agency $107 million, according to the report.
The new cars will belong to a fleet of more than 500 new railcars, which are designed to provide a safer, more comfortable ride for millions of passengers and expand the Metrorail system’s capacity overall.