The International Rail Journal and El País reported this morning that SDOT will award a $50 million contract to CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles), a Spanish rail manufacturer, to build ten “Urbos” streetcars for the Center City Connector project. Three of the streetcars in the order will be used to replace the oldest cars on the South Lake Union line, which lack off-wire capabilities and could potentially be sold to Portland. The contract also includes testing, spare parts, and options for an additional ten streetcars if needed.

CAF will assemble the cars in their Elmira, New York factory to comply with Buy America requirements. The Urbos 3 model is a 100% low floor vehicle, unlike the current 70% low floor streetcars from Inekon, and has 34 to 38 seats in a mix of transverse and aisle-facing rows. The vehicles, like the newer generation of Inekon streetcars built for First Hill, are able to run off-wire using on-board batteries and a “super-capacitor” developed by CAF.

The Urbos streetcars have been in North America for just over a year in Kansas City and Cincinnati, where they operate in mixed traffic similar to the pre-2016 South Lake Union line. Cincinnati’s order was met with manufacturing delays in mid-2015 that prompted the city to threaten legal action, but ultimately did not effect the line’s opening date. Kansas City’s order missed its planned deliveries by several months, but opened as expected in early 2016. Kansas City’s streetcar had a particularly rocky start, being hit by a driver and suffering a derailment due to track debris, but the Urbos streetcars proved reliable enough to warrant a second order earlier this year for two additional vehicles. CAF will also be manufacturing rail vehicles for Amtrak, the Purple Line in Maryland, Green Line in Boston, and Houston’s MetroRail over the next few years at the Elmira plant.

UPDATE – Tuesday, October 3: SDOT has provided the full press release, and clarified that the vehicle they’ve selected is based on the CAF Urbos line but with some small differences. Still 100% low-floor and with a battery for off-wire segments.