By Robert J. Hawkins for SignOnSanDiego.comThere is life after San Diego: Definitely for four of the Metropolitan Transit System's hard-working red trolleys.
The quartet was retired after each car racked up nearly 30 years of service, carried 2 million passengers and traveled 9 million miles. The trolleys were sold last year to the transit system in Mendoza, Argentina, which is building a light-rail transit system.
In September 2010, the Provincial Government of Mendoza signed a contract to purchase 11 trolleys for $3.3 million. The older vehicles are being replaced in San Diego. MTS has purchased 57 low-floor light-rail vehicles from Siemens. They will start arriving this summer.
The purchase is part of the $650 million Trolley Renewal Project, which is overhauling the original Blue Line and Orange Line, and will result in a single standard across the system for all trolley cars.
The retired trolleys were shipped to Argentina in January after being disassembled into two pieces and wrapped in plastic. They traveled by truck to Houston, by boat to Buenos Aires, and by truck again to Mendoza.
Mendoza residents were introduced to their new trolleys during their recent Grape Harvest Festival parade. One of the trolleys was included on a float in the parade.
Metrotranvía Mendoza is installing the overhead electrical wire on its new light rail system. A generator was used to test the trolleys and they successfully traveled about 50 meters, according to an MTS spokesman.
The Mendoza system has several parallels to the original San Diego Trolley Blue Line that opened in 1981, according to county Supervisor Ron Roberts, who accompanied an MTS delegation to Mendoza. Roberts also sits on the MTS board of directors.
Both are built over existing rail lines and are about the same distance and both..Read full article
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