Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) awarded Stadler a USD 119 million contract for the supply of 8 Flirt DMUs and for design of an equipment maintenance facility for the Cotton Belt regional rail project.
According to the contract the trains will enter passenger service by the end of 2022.
The new vehicles Stadler is designing for DART have the ability to transport 240 seated passengers and 225 standing passengers and are fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The trains will be fitted with a comprehensive CCTV system, an automatic passenger counting system, which can count the number of passengers boarding and alighting the train at each stop, can detect huddling of passengers in certain areas of the train as well as blockages of boarding areas.
The DMU for DART meets both tier 4 EPA emissions standards and FRA Standards. Each train set consists of 4 units, plus a power pack in the middle, which houses the power unit. This setup includes 4 powered axles and 8 unpowered axles. This puts the trains at approximately 267 feet (81.3m) in length.
According to the contract, Stadler will provide input and past experiences to engineering company Urban Engineers, who is contracted for their design services for the planned EMF.
This is the fourth contract for Stadler in Texas so far. Operators such as CapMetro in Austin, Denton County Transportation Authority in Lewisville and TEXRail in Fort Worth are already successfully in revenue service with Stadler trains.
The 42-km Cotton Belt Corridor extends between Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Shiloh Road in Plano, a city in north Texas. The line crosses seven cities, providing passenger rail connections and service that will improve mobility, accessibility and system linkages to major employment, population and activity centers in the northern part of the DART Service Area.
The corridor will have LRT connections with three lines – Red/Orange Lines in Richardson/Plano, the Green Line in Carrollton and the Orange Line at DFW Airport.
In addition, at DFW Airport, the project would connect to the future Fort Worth Transportation Authority TEXRail Regional Rail Line to Fort Worth, which is under construction, and provide access to the DFW Airport Skylink People Mover.
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