GRAND OPENINGS: New York State's second

converted into fare-collection vehicles. So, 2 94 Rohr cars and 366 Breda cars would give Metro a fleet of 6 6 0 .

largest city joined the rail rapid transit parade on May 20

with the start of revenue service of the Buffalo light rail line. Six years have elapsed since the start of construction in 1 9 7 9 . The six-mile route includes more than a mile of street running along Main Street downtown, with the remainder underground. Initial service will be from the S outh Park
Shops a t the foo t of Main Street to the A mherst Street Station, w ith the final extension to Southern New York

MISSOURI MEMO: I t hasn't attracted much atten
tion, but S t. Louis i s barging ahead with plans to build a l ight rail line which would link East St. Louis with St. Louis and its airport and affluent Western suburbs. Richard Kunz says the project has won a $ 3 . 5 million UMTA design grant. Interestingly, this line would receive an infrastructure windfall in the form of a complete set of rail tracks in place on the E ads Bridge a cross the Mississippi River and an intact rail tunnel under downtown St. Louis. This former Louisville & N ashville link between Illinois and the S t. Louis Union Station h asn ' t been used in years, but is in good shape . The tracks on the bridge are on the lower deck; the upper deck is in use for autos and once had streetcar tracks. Once through downtown, the light rail line would call at a restored Union Station and then use the former Wabash p assenger line to the Western suburbs with a branch to Lambert-St. Louis Airport.

University-Buffalo scheduled for completion next year. For the past few months a free demonstration service has been operated on the surf ace portion downtown. Tokyu Car
Corp. o f Japan supplied the 27 four-axle, double-ended,

chopper-controlled cars, and the Niagara Frontier Transit Authority was planning to operate three-car trains at six minute intervals during the rush hours, and two-cars trains on 1 0-minute headways off -peak . . . . April 28 saw the long delayed opening of P hiladelphia's A irport High Speed line. Built as an extension to the electrified suburban rail network, the double-track line branches off the Northeast Corridor main line near the defunct B rill p lant and continues directly to the airport with stations at three different terminals. Trains run on 30-minute headways starting at Market East, serving the Suburban Station and 30th Street, then running nonstop to the airport. While there is no increase in rush-hour headways, there is an increase in fares peak-hour-from $2 to $ 3 . 5 0 . 50 YEARS FOR NEWARK: It was 50 years ago-in May 1 9 3 5-that
N ewark's C ity Trolley Subway celebrated its grand

SACRAMENTO SIGHTINGS: T he light rail

project in California's capital city now has obligated about $ 1 00 million of its $ 1 5 6 million budget and the award of major contracts has hit a fast pace. Five Northeast Corridor stations are under contract, as is much of the track. Due to higher-than-expected bids to construct the 4 . 3-mile Central City segment, that job will be split into smaller segments. Track construction will begin at Arden Way and Del Paso Blvd. in July heading toward downtown at 1 2th & K s treets, and the remaining 2 . 9 miles from 1 2th & K t o 34th & R w ill begin in mid-September. Work on the 7 . 5 -mile F olsom
Corridor a lso will commence next fal l . Meanwhile, S iemens-Allis/Duwag t akes over a building adj acent to the

opening. The 4 . 3-mile light rail line has undergone a $ 1 9 . 8 million rehabilitation during the past 1 8 months which has modernized the track, switch and signal systems, and stations, especially the terminal underneath Newark's Penn
Station. One thing that has gone "unmodernized" is the

rolling stock. Newark still operates a fleet of 24 PCC cars which started their careers nearly 40 years ago in
M inneapolis a nd S t. Paul . H owever, the PCCs have been

light rail maintenance and operations facility on July 1 with assembly of the 2 6 cars set to begin in August. . . . U p in Edmonton, Alta., where most of the light rail cars for
E dmonton a nd some of the Calgary cars were assembled,

ref urbished and are good for another 1 0 years at least. Will Newark's PCCs be the last of the breed to operate in North America?

Siemens plans to join with the Alberta government in a $ 2 . 5 million project t o perf ect a new LRT propulsion system utilizing alternating current. CHICAGO CALLING: A new heavy rapid transit line will soon be under construction in the Windy City. Final transit alignment and station locations have been approved for a new 'L' line linking the
L oop a nd M idway Airport v ia the so-called Archer

on the Green Line tunnels under the Anacostia River, one of the last major legs of the Washington, D . C . , Metro to get underway. Ron Deiter reports that this line was about ready to break ground three years ago when it was halted by a court fight . Metro has applied for additional UMTA money to increase its still-abuilding B reda s ubway car order fro m 2 9 4 units to 3 6 6 . An extra $84 million would be needed, with completion of the extended order expected in mid- 1 9 88 and giving Metro a fleet large enough to cover 89 miles of route. There are now 298 cars in the original Rohr-built fleet, but four of these subway cars are to be
3 8 AUGUST 1 98 5

CAPITAL COMMENTS: C onstruction has begun

Avenue Corridor. From the existing Roosevelt Road ' L ' station, the line w i l l head southwest paralleling Archer Ave. with stations at Halstead and Archer, 2 1 st & A shland, 3 5 t h
& A rcher, 49th & Western, 4 9 t h Place & C alifornia, 49th &

Kedzie, 5 1 st & P ulaski, and Midway Airport. Transit officials say 1 1 8,000 persons a day will use the line by 2000; today, Archer Ave. is by far the city's busiest bus line.