It’s true… NCTD Finally Bought New Cars

AFdude06

Well-known member
Hello all!
While driving north on the I-5, I was passing NCTD’s Stuart Mesa Yard in Camp Pendleton and outside the shop was a brand new Bombardier Series X BiLevel cab. This is big for us here in San Diego because NCTD hasn’t expanded its passenger car fleet since 2003!
A little backstory: In 2020 NCTD published an article describing an order for new cars was on the horizon. It had concept art showing a Series X cab in Phase I paint, but there wasn’t much information. NCTD made the first big upgrade in 2020, putting five Siemens SC-44 Chargers into service. They debuted the Phase II paint, but there was no sign of new cars to go with them. In 2023 four more Chargers arrived, and NCTD was planning to add more services. With many of the old cars undergoing overhauls and repaints, trainsets have been reduced to four cars rather than five.
I can confirm seeing two new Series X cabs in the yard, one sitting alone and the other in a train. I couldn’t see the numbers, but knowing NCTD’s system they are likely numbered in the 2300’s.

Here’s a roster to overview:
Car TypeSeriesNumber BuiltRoad NumbersDate Built
CoachII82201-22081994
CabII82301-23081994
CoachIII62401-24061997
CoachIV42501-25042003
CabIV22309-23102003
CoachX842101-421082024
CabX3421-4232024

My thoughts.

EDIT: For some reason the road numbers are showing as phone number links?
EDIT: Roster updated after seeing the cars in a video where the road numbers were clear. It looks like the numbering system is going in another direction than NCTD’s usual.
 
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I found the original article for the BiLevels in NCTD’s Newsroom (published July 16, 2020): https://gonctd.com/bombardier-nctd-contract-bilevel-coaster-cars

It states that the order was for two cabs and eight coaches, with the ability to add one cab and purchase up to 27 more cars. Mostly the article discusses how this can improve service rather than describing the actual cars. Apparently the picture was also deleted.

I’m going to edit the roster above to match the information I just gathered.

Cheers
 
That's great news. You'll finally get some new equipment in your area. We're not so lucky here with the MBTA. They're still running old ROTEM bilevels and Horizon passenger cars pulled by F40PH-3s, EMD GP40w's and some hand-me-down other engines I can't remember offhand. The F40PHs are so bad that their rocker panels look like those on old Dodge Darts from the 1970s after being ravaged by road salt that's been dumped on the roads over the years.
 
I can understand. I’ve compared the ride in the original versus overhauled Coaster cars and the difference is notable. The reason NCTD was able to do all that upgrading because California has the Carl Moyer grant system for replacing railroad equipment. If a railroad is willing to permanently decommission its old locos, it will receive funding for new Tier 4 locomotives. That’s how the Chargers came onto the scene, for NCTD and Amtrak. I wonder if MBTA will eventually get a similar opportunity?
 
I can understand. I’ve compared the ride in the original versus overhauled Coaster cars and the difference is notable. The reason NCTD was able to do all that upgrading because California has the Carl Moyer grant system for replacing railroad equipment. If a railroad is willing to permanently decommission its old locos, it will receive funding for new Tier 4 locomotives. That’s how the Chargers came onto the scene, for NCTD and Amtrak. I wonder if MBTA will eventually get a similar opportunity?
That's interesting and I wonder the same, but I doubt it. I'm surprised we even have the Rotem cars and aren't still running the Messerschmitt commuter cars and refurbished Budd RDCs turned into coaches.

The "T" has always been a political football depending upon the governor in charge. Under Charlie Baker, he used the transit agency as a way to give political cronies jobs. The agency was all management and no staff with no money to do any repairs. It was pretty sad. This led to fires on the orange line and massive derailments on the red line caused by rusting bogey frames catching the third rail or picking switch points.

Then there was the bus-centric management that was in place for years who were hell-bent on destroying the light rail system. In 1985 the line from Cleveland Circle (Heath Street) to the Jamaica Plain Forest Hill terminus was "closed due to a cost-cutting move". Note the quotes. The line sat for the next 30 years, got upgraded to the new signal system, got new track, and even new catenary to replace the old single wire trolley with the one to support flat pantographs all at our expense.

The line sat there unused and residents in the area pushed the "T" to open the line. Eventually, the deal ended up in court where the decision was made in literally milliseconds to close the line after a bunch of lawyers and NIMBYs came into the courtroom and complained that there might be noise from the trolleys. I'm not kidding! These people, it turned out, were paid by the shills at the T and the agency used that as an excuse to rip up the tracks the next day. The judge was accused of taking some payola and people resigned but that didn't save the line or the historic station at Forest Hills.

A few months later, the other mothballed line from Brighton to Watertown was torn up. This one was interesting because there's a heavy-repair car shop at the Watertown end where the LRVs were repaired. After the tracks were ripped up, the LRVs had to be trucked in via Interstate 95 and down Rt. 20 through Waltham to Watertown mostly in the wee hours of the morning.

This made for some awful, and I mean truly awful traffic jams during rush hour when their trip didn't go as planned. I got stuck on I-95 between Rt. 2A and Main Street Waltham on my way to work at Polaroid. My exit was at Totten Pond located in the middle of it with no way to get to any backroads.

After finally inching my way down the highway, I saw the tie up. There were two LRVs sitting on flatbeds on the side of the highway waiting for traffic to lighten up before they continued their journey. So much for efficiency!

There were many other incidents like this. It's sad.
 
That's interesting and I wonder the same, but I doubt it. I'm surprised we even have the Rotem cars and aren't still running the Messerschmitt commuter cars and refurbished Budd RDCs turned into coaches.

The "T" has always been a political football depending upon the governor in charge. Under Charlie Baker, he used the transit agency as a way to give political cronies jobs. The agency was all management and no staff with no money to do any repairs. It was pretty sad. This led to fires on the orange line and massive derailments on the red line caused by rusting bogey frames catching the third rail or picking switch points.

Then there was the bus-centric management that was in place for years who were hell-bent on destroying the light rail system. In 1985 the line from Cleveland Circle (Heath Street) to the Jamaica Plain Forest Hill terminus was "closed due to a cost-cutting move". Note the quotes. The line sat for the next 30 years, got upgraded to the new signal system, got new track, and even new catenary to replace the old single wire trolley with the one to support flat pantographs all at our expense.

The line sat there unused and residents in the area pushed the "T" to open the line. Eventually, the deal ended up in court where the decision was made in literally milliseconds to close the line after a bunch of lawyers and NIMBYs came into the courtroom and complained that there might be noise from the trolleys. I'm not kidding! These people, it turned out, were paid by the shills at the T and the agency used that as an excuse to rip up the tracks the next day. The judge was accused of taking some payola and people resigned but that didn't save the line or the historic station at Forest Hills.

A few months later, the other mothballed line from Brighton to Watertown was torn up. This one was interesting because there's a heavy-repair car shop at the Watertown end where the LRVs were repaired. After the tracks were ripped up, the LRVs had to be trucked in via Interstate 95 and down Rt. 20 through Waltham to Watertown mostly in the wee hours of the morning.

This made for some awful, and I mean truly awful traffic jams during rush hour when their trip didn't go as planned. I got stuck on I-95 between Rt. 2A and Main Street Waltham on my way to work at Polaroid. My exit was at Totten Pond located in the middle of it with no way to get to any backroads.

After finally inching my way down the highway, I saw the tie up. There were two LRVs sitting on flatbeds on the side of the highway waiting for traffic to lighten up before they continued their journey. So much for efficiency!

There were many other incidents like this. It's sad.
Wow! That’s very sad. When did all that happen? I couldn’t even imagine the sight of the railroad in that condition. I don’t think we’ve experienced anything like that here in Southern California! Fortunately the LOSSAN corridor has been well managed by the transit agencies and BNSF. I would guess that ridership and profits suffered from the drama and incidents?
 
Wow! That’s very sad. When did all that happen? I couldn’t even imagine the sight of the railroad in that condition. I don’t think we’ve experienced anything like that here in Southern California! Fortunately the LOSSAN corridor has been well managed by the transit agencies and BNSF. I would guess that ridership and profits suffered from the drama and incidents?
The Baker administration was between 2015 - 2023. The first day on his job he fired the head of the "T" and brought in his own people.

The trolley issue was long before that between 1985 and the early to mid-2000s.

The "T" has indeed suffered from ridership issues. There are some interesting videos on this system on YouTube. Their new general manager is a train guy for once and is really working hard at bringing the system back to life. Let's hope he's around long enough to get something done for a change.

You are very lucky and LOSSAN is well funded and is in good shape. The "T" is an old system that's ripe for the picking I suppose.
 
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I drove by the Stuart Mesa Yard again today and managed to get some photos! It looks like the road numbers for the new cars are different than what I thought they would be. I saw two cabs and maybe all eight coaches.
The roster will be updated.

Cheers
 
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