Southern California’s Metrolink will introduce the nation’s first commuter rail cars equipped with crash-absorbing impact zones later this year. The Los Angeles Times describes some of the features:
Among the key defenses incorporated into the shiny, stainless-steel double-decker cars will be collapsible nose cones in front of engineers and riders on so-called cab cars, the passenger vehicles that lead the trains half the time as they run in reverse, heading inbound toward the Los Angeles Union Station hub. Current cab cars have little in front of the driver’s control booth and the passenger compartment except a flat, thin car wall.
Metrolink is purchasing 57 cab cars and 60 passenger cars in total. The agency took delivery of its first two cars earlier this year; pending testing and federal safety approvals, the new vehicles will appear in passenger service this fall. Link to full story in Los Angeles Times.
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Haven’t features like this been standard on European passenger cars for decades?
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