March 16, 2016 County Leaders and members of Hitachi Rail USA (an Italian company) celebrate the opening of an assembly plant, AnsaldoBreda in Medley where they will assemble 136 new Metrorail trains to replace the aging trains currently in use by Miami-Dade County's Metrorail fleet. The new trains promise to decrease maintenance costs and increase customer comfort. The first trains will go into service in mid-2017 after qualification testing. The final roll-out will be in 2019. The $US 313 million contract for the new trains did not roll out on smooth rails as AnsaldoBreda had to resolve a legal challenge filed locally by the CAF claiming that Miami-Dade County had breached federal procurement laws. Now that the case has been resolved the opening of the plant is expected to create approximately 100 new jobs in Miami-Dade County.
The new trains will be equipped with LED lighting, Wi-Fi, CCTV, and bicycle racks. The outside of the cars are sleek and shiny while keeping in line with the look of the metro rail that we are used to seeing in Miami.
The passenger seats do not seem to offer more elbow room. In fact they seem a bit tight but we shall see
what the final product is like next year when the first trains are deployed.
