In the recent STAR response to SacRT’s Strategic Vision, light rail car replacement is addressed in two locations, under State of Good Repair as “Replacement of light rail cars with low-floor cars” which has been the STAR position since our beginning, and the under New Ideas as “Complete replacement of light rail cars with low-floor cars, all at once rather than in phases.”

Two of the three sets of light rail cars in the fleet (SacRT light rail fleet replacement) are not at the end of their useful life, however, we would still like to see replacement all at once, for several reasons:

• A mixed system of low floor and high floor cars is awkward. Though separate trains could be run on separate lines (Blue and Gold), and mixed-car sets could be run, this would confuse and inconvenience riders. Since the high-floor cars are paired with mini-high platforms, a two car train, which resverses directions at the end of the line, could have only high-floor cars. Only three or four cars trains could have low-floor cars.
• A mixed system could operate by offsetting platforms one block, the old station for high-floor and a new station for low-floor. But this would confuse users, and cause people to miss trains when they were at the wrong station.
• Light rail cars can be modified to have a low-floor section spliced into a high-floor car. Dallas (DART) has done this and feels it works well, but no other transit systems that have looked at this solution have adopted it. It is like maintaining legacy code in software, it bloats the software and eventually it all breaks down.
• Every day that goes by without low floor cars makes the system harder to use for both disabled and a led people, and reduces ridership by making light rail less than the first choice for transportation.

STAR is quite aware of the huge cost involved in an all-at-once replacement. We don’t know where the funds would come from. But we feel it is the right thing to do, and the shock of doing it now will lead to a highly effective light rail system that works for riders.

• SacRT