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The Siemens S70, its successor the S700 and European variant, the Avanto, are a series of
low-floor Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...
light-rail vehicles (LRV) and
streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...
s manufactured by
Siemens Mobility Siemens Mobility GmbH is a separately-managed company of Siemens, arising from a corporate restructuring effective 1 August 2018. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens Mobility has four core business units: Mobility Management, dedi ...
, a division of German conglomerate
Siemens AG Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', ''E ...
. The S70 and S700 are built for the United States market where the vehicles are in use on several light rail and streetcar systems. The S70 was manufactured from 2002 to 2017 and the S700 from 2014 to present, but the model designation ''S700'' was only introduced in 2019 and then retroactively applied to certain versions of the S70 built in earlier years. In this field, it competes mainly with Bombardier and
Kinki Sharyo is a Japanese manufacturer of railroad vehicles based in Osaka. It is an affiliate company of Kintetsu Corporation. In business since 1920 (as Tanaka Rolling Stock Works) and renamed The Kinki Sharyo Co., Ltd in 1945. They have produced light r ...
low-floor LRVs and modern streetcars manufactured by
Inekon Inekon Trams, a.s. is a manufacturer of trams, or streetcars, located in the Czech Republic, and has supplied new trams to several cities in the Czech Republic and the United States.Webb, Mary (ed.) (2009). ''Jane's Urban Transport Systems 2009� ...
and
Brookville Equipment Corporation Brookville Equipment Corporation, based in Brookville, Pennsylvania, United States, manufactures railroad locomotives for industrial and light capacity switching needs. The company also builds and restores streetcars. The company used to be ...
. The Avanto was built for the European market starting in 2006 and was principally sold to
tram-train A tram-train is a type of light rail vehicle that meets the standards of a light rail system (usually an urban street running tramway), but which also meets national mainline standards permitting operation alongside mainline trains. This al ...
systems which, in whole or part, share their tracks with heavy rail trains. In Europe, the Siemens
Combino The Siemens Combino is a low-floor tram produced by Siemens Mobility (formerly Duewag). The first prototype was produced in 1996 at the Duewag works in Düsseldorf; the trams are now made in Krefeld-Uerdingen. Due to its modular design using ...
and
Avenio The Siemens Avenio is a low floor tram family produced by Siemens Mobility, a subsidiary of the German conglomerate Siemens. It is the successor to the Combino family. The first generation was sold as the Combino Supra , Combino MkII, or Combin ...
models are the preferred offerings for purely light rail or
tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...
way systems. In the tram-train market, its principal competitors are Bombardier's
Flexity Link The Alstom Flexity (sold as Bombardier Flexity before 2021, stylized in all caps) is a family of modern trams, streetcars and light rail vehicles manufactured by Bombardier Transportation, since 2021 a division of French company Alstom. As of ...
and Alstom's Citadis. To date, the Avanto has been sold to two tram-train operations in France.


History

The first order for S70 vehicles in the U.S. – where the three-section model was originally known as S70 Avanto but soon became known only as the S70 – was placed in 2001 for the
MetroRail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the 12th ...
system in
Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
, and the first car was received by Houston in April 2003. This first series of S70 cars entered service on January 1, 2004, the opening day of Houston's light rail system. The first purchase of the European version, a five-section
tram-train A tram-train is a type of light rail vehicle that meets the standards of a light rail system (usually an urban street running tramway), but which also meets national mainline standards permitting operation alongside mainline trains. This al ...
design sold under the ''Avanto''
brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
name, was a 15-car order placed in July 2002 by
SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...
, for its line between
Aulnay-sous-Bois Aulnay-sous-Bois () is a commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis department in the Île-de-France region in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Aulnaysiens ...
and
Bondy Bondy () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. In 2019, it had a population of 54,587. Name The name Bondy was recorded for the first time arou ...
, which is now known as
Île-de-France tramway Line 4 Île-de-France tramway Line 4, also called the T4, is an long tram-train line operated by the SNCF. It was inaugurated 20 November 2006, and runs between Aulnay-sous-Bois, Bondy and Montfermeil in the Seine-Saint-Denis department of Île-de-Franc ...
.


Redesign and model number change

At Siemens's U.S. manufacturing facilities (in
Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...
), only model S700 remains in production, the last S70s having been built in 2017, for
Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi, Minnesota River, Minnesota and St. Croix River (Wisconsin–Minnesota) ...
's Metro Transit light rail system. The model number ''S700'' was adopted by Siemens Mobility in 2019 as a rebranding of a ''version'' of the S70 that had been in production since 2014. That newer version resulted from a redesign in which Siemens adapted the center-section truck that it had previously used in its SD660 model (built 1996–2005) to the S70, for the purpose of allowing longitudinal (sideways-facing) seating to be used there, in place of transverse seating, for better passenger comfort and movement. The first LRVs built to the newer design were the "Type 5" cars of
Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...
's MAX Light Rail system, in 2014, but initially Siemens continued to sell LRVs with either center-section configuration and used the designation ''S70'' for both. In 2019, the company began using the designation ''S700'' for new orders, and in 2020 it retroactively applied the ''S700'' designation to all LRVs and streetcars that had been built to the newer design since its creation in 2013 or 2014.


Size and configuration

The S70, S700, and Avanto have a
modular Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a s ...
design and can be built in a number of different sizes and configurations, including both light-rail vehicle (LRV) and
streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...
versions. The standard version of the S70 and S700 LRV is long, although the earliest S70 units delivered had a different, longer cab design that extended the length to . The streetcar version of the S700 is long, about shorter than the standard LRV. Siemens also offers a US ("Ultra Short") variant of the LRV at , about shorter than the standard version. The
San Diego Trolley The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. It is known colloquially as "The Trolley". The Trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Tra ...
and the Salt Lake City TRAX systems have purchased the US variants. The Avantos built for France have a length of . The major change between the S70 and the S700 is the seating in the center section of the vehicle. The S700 has longitudinal seating in this section with passengers facing the aisle, while the S70 had more traditional seating with passengers sitting four-across, facing forward or back, with an aisle in between. This 2013 change, which was made to eliminate a seating layout that had been criticized as cramped and ease the movement of passengers within that section, was the primary design change that led Siemens eventually to adopt (in 2019) the new model number for the modified S70 design. The S700 also has some technology upgrades. Most vehicles are double-ended, with operating controls at both ends and doors on both sides. An exception are 40 cars in service on
TriMet TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 ...
's MAX system, which are single-ended and have cabs at only one end of each car. However, in service they always operate in pairs, coupled back-to-back, so that each
consist In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often know ...
has operating cabs at both ends.Morgan, Steve. "Expansion for Portland's MAX: New routes and equipment", pp. 38-40. ''
Passenger Train Journal ''Passenger Train Journal'' ''(PTJ)'' is an American magazine about passenger rail transport and rail transit past and present, oriented for railfans and rail passenger advocates and published currently by White River Productions. Founded in 1968, ...
'', "2010:1" issue (1st quarter, 2010). White River Productions.
TriMet reverted to a double-ended design for its latest order of S700s (placed in 2019). The S70, S700 and Avanto can be configured to operate on various overhead power supply systems. For example, the Avantos ordered for France are dual voltage, capable of operating on 750 V DC when running on tram or light rail tracks and on when running on main line tracks. Systems in the Americas use a variety of systems including 600 V DC, 750 V DC and . The S70 and S700 can also be equipped to interface with older Siemens light rail vehicles. The San Diego Trolley's S70 and S700 vehicles frequently operate with high-floor SD-100 vehicles.


Usage and current orders


United States

* Atlanta, Georgia (
Atlanta Streetcar Atlanta Streetcar or Downtown Loop is a streetcar line in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Testing on the line began in summer 2014 with passenger service beginning as scheduled on December 30, 2014. In , the line had rides, or about per wee ...
): 4 S70 Streetcar units, ordered in 2011. In May 2011,
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', ''E ...
announced that it had won the $17.2 million contract to build the four streetcars that run on the Atlanta Streetcar. The vehicles were built at Siemens' plant in Florin, California, but with major components, including the propulsion system, assembled at Siemens' plant in
Alpharetta, Georgia Alpharetta is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States, and is a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 US Census, Alpharetta's population was 65,818 The population in 2010 was 57,551. History In the 1830s, the C ...
. The first of the streetcars was delivered on February 17, 2014, and began passenger service on December 30, 2014. * Charlotte, North Carolina **
Lynx Blue Line The Lynx Blue Line is a light rail line in Charlotte, North Carolina. Opened in 2007, it was the first rail line of the Charlotte Area Transit System, and the first major rapid rail service of any kind in the state. The 26-station, line extends ...
: 42 S70 units purchased and now operating. First 16 cars, purchased for $50 million, have been in service since the opening of the Charlotte light rail system in November 2007. Four additional units purchased in 2008 to keep up with higher-than-expected ridership were received in early 2010. In 2012, after 4 years of operation, the original 16 cars had to be repaired at the Siemens facility in California for an estimated cost of $400,000 each. A third order, for 22 LRVs, was delivered in stages between fall 2014 and spring 2017, and CATS now operates 42 S70 vehicles. **
CityLynx Gold Line The CityLynx Gold Line is a streetcar line in Charlotte, North Carolina. A component of the Charlotte Area Transit System's Lynx rail system, it follows a primarily east-west path along Beatties Ford Road, Trade Street and Central Avenue through c ...
: Six S700 streetcar units were ordered in 2016, and were delivered in 2019–2020. These six cars were specified to have internal batteries to allow off-wire operations in some areas. The S700 streetcars are a compact version of the S70 light rail vehicles that currently operate on the LYNX Blue Line. The cost to purchase these six vehicles and spare parts is $40.4 million. * Houston, Texas (
METRORail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the 12th ...
): 18 S70 units purchased, the first of which was delivered in April 2003; delivery was completed in late 2004. Nineteen additional units were purchased later, procured using
Utah Transit Authority The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) is a special service district responsible for providing public transportation throughout the Wasatch Front of Utah, in the United States, which includes the metropolitan areas of Ogden, Park City, Provo, Sal ...
(
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
) options, delivered starting in late 2012. The original cars are the long variant; the 2012–13 cars are the US ("Ultra Short") variant. 14 more S700 units were ordered in early 2019. * Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota ( Metro): 64 S70 units purchased. Delivery of initial order of 59 began in 2012, with the first unit entering service in February 2013. In October 2015, an option was exercised for five additional vehicles at a cost of $20 million, and these were received in fall 2017. In October 2016, an order was placed for 27 more S70s, to a modified design that has since been rebranded S700 by Siemens. Delivery began in May 2020. * Norfolk, Virginia ( Tide Light Rail): 9 S70 cars, ordered in 2007. First cars delivered October 2009. Entered service with the opening of the Norfolk system, in 2011. * Phoenix, Arizona (
Valley Metro Rail Valley Metro Rail (styled as METRO) is a light rail line serving the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa in Arizona, USA. The network, which is part of the Valley Metro public transit system, began operations on December 27, 2008. In , the sy ...
): 11 S700 vehicles ordered, in June 2017, with options for up to 67 more. Fourteen options exercised in October 2020. Began to enter service January 2022. * Portland, Oregon ( MAX Light Rail): 22 S70 and 18 S700 units purchased and now in operation. Order for initial 21 S70 cars announced on May 11, 2006; later expanded by one car. Entered service starting in August 2009. Order placed 2012 for another 18 cars; delivered in 2014–2015 and subsequently rebranded as S700 by Siemens. An order for 26 S700 units was placed in July 2019, with delivery scheduled to run from mid-2021 to fall 2022. Unlike Portland's previous S70 and S700 LRVs, these will be double-ended. * Sacramento, California ( Sacramento RT Light Rail): 20 S700 units ordered in 2020 for the Sacramento RT Light Rail system, with options for a total of 76 cars. Shortly after the initial 20-unit order, Sacramento was awarded by the California State Transportation Agency another $23.6 million dollars to purchase an additional 8 units, thus bringing the total number of S700 units on order for delivery beginning in 2022 to 28. * Salt Lake City, Utah ** TRAX: 77 S70 US ("Ultra Short") units ordered; in service since August 7, 2011. **
S Line S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. Histor ...
: S70 US units * San Diego, California (
San Diego Trolley The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. It is known colloquially as "The Trolley". The Trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Tra ...
): 11 S70 () units purchased in first order in October 2004, with delivery complete in July 2005. A second order, for 57 S70 US ("Ultra Short" ) cars, was placed in October 2009; the order was later increased to a total of 65 S70 US units in 2012. 45 additional cars, now of the rebranded model S700 US, entered service in April 2019 and the last cars in the order were received in October 2020. Meanwhile, an additional 25 S700s were ordered in mid-2019. * Santa Ana, California (
OC Streetcar The OC Streetcar is a modern streetcar ( LRT) line currently under construction in Orange County, California, running through the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove. The electric-powered streetcar will be operated by the Orange County Tran ...
): 8 S700 streetcar units ordered in March 2018 for the under construction
OC Streetcar The OC Streetcar is a modern streetcar ( LRT) line currently under construction in Orange County, California, running through the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove. The electric-powered streetcar will be operated by the Orange County Tran ...
light rail line. * Seattle, Washington (
Link light rail Link light rail is a light rail rapid transit system serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is managed by Sound Transit in partnership with local transit providers, and consists of two non-connected lines ...
): 152 S700 units on order. Of these, an order for 122 was placed in September 2016 and delivery began in 2019. This $554 million contract was the largest contract in Sound Transit's history. The order was expanded by 30 cars in spring 2017. The LRVs will be used for expansion of the Central Link system. Entered service in May of 2021.


France

The S70 model used in France is known as the ''Avanto'' and locally designated as the U 25500. Unlike the S70 models in the USA, the Avanto has 5 sections instead of 3. * Paris (
Île-de-France tramway Line 4 Île-de-France tramway Line 4, also called the T4, is an long tram-train line operated by the SNCF. It was inaugurated 20 November 2006, and runs between Aulnay-sous-Bois, Bondy and Montfermeil in the Seine-Saint-Denis department of Île-de-Franc ...
): 15 tram-train units purchased. Entered service starting on November 18, 2006. * Mulhouse (
Mulhouse tramway The Mulhouse tramway (french: Tramway de Mulhouse; gsw-FR, D'Strossabàhn Milhüsa) is a tram network in the French city of Mulhouse in Alsace, France. It commenced service in 2006, and now comprises three purely tram lines, plus one hybri ...
): 12 tram-train units delivered, for use on an SNCF line from Mulhouse to
Thann, Haut-Rhin Thann (; Alsatian: ''Dànn'', , german: Thann) is a commune in the northeastern French department of Haut-Rhin, in Grand Est."Siemens tram-train arrives in Mulhouse". ''
Tramways & Urban Transit ''Tramways & Urban Transit'' ''(TAUT'' or ''T&UT)'', also known as ''Modern Tramway'', is a British monthly magazine about tramways and light rail transport, published continuously since 1938. Its content is orientated both to tramway enthu ...
'', January 2010, p. 27. Light Rail Transit Association (UK).
First unit delivered on November 6, 2009.


Cancelled orders

* An order for 22 S70 cars, placed in 2006 by
Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
for a planned expansion of its
O-Train The O-Train is a light metro transit system in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, operated by OC Transpo. The O-Train system has two lines, the electrically-operated Confederation Line (Line 1) and the diesel-operated Trillium Line (Line 2). Since May ...
system, was later cancelled. Political problems had resulted in cancellation of the entire expansion project, which in turn led to lawsuits by Siemens and other contractors against the City of Ottawa.


See also

*
Light rail in North America Light rail is a commonly used mode of public transit in North America. The term '' light rail'' was coined in 1972 by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA; the precursor to the U.S. Federal Transit Administration) to describe new str ...
* Streetcars in North America *
Siemens–Duewag U2 The Siemens–Duewag U2 is a type of light rail vehicle (LRV), built by consortium of Siemens, Duewag and Wegmann & Co built between 1968 and 1990. The design was based on the prototype U1 tram built in 1965 for the Frankfurt U-Bahn. The U2 was ...
*
Siemens SD-100 and SD-160 The SD-100 and SD-160 are light rail vehicles (LRV) that were manufactured by Siemens Mobility between 1992 and 2013 for the North American market. The vehicles were all constructed at the Siemens facility in Florin, California. The primary dif ...
*
Siemens SD-400 and SD-460 The SD-400 and SD-460 are light rail vehicles (LRV) that were manufactured by Siemens Mobility between 1985 and 2005 for the North and South American markets. The SD-400 was built under Siemens' joint venture with DÜWAG and assembled at both D ...
* Siemens S200


Notes


References


External links

{{Commons category multi, Siemens S70, Siemens S700
Siemens USA Light rail vehicles and streetcars (official webpage)
Tram vehicles of France Electric multiple units of the United States Streetcars of the United States Light rail vehicles Siemens tram vehicles Articulated passenger trains 600 V DC multiple units 750 V DC multiple units 1500 V DC multiple units 25 kV AC multiple units Siemens multiple units