BROOKVILLE, Pa. – Brookville Equipment Corporation (BROOKVILLE) earned the award for Technical Innovation of the Year for its Liberty Modern Streetcar, featuring an onboard energy storage system (OESS), at the ninth annual Global Light Rail Awards in London on Wed., Oct. 7.
“This innovative vehicle is a testament to the ingenuity and work ethic of the entire BROOKVILLE staff,” BROOKVILLE President Marion Van Fosson, who accepted the award, said following the event. “Every day our customers challenge us to develop solutions that will help them overcome their challenges, and our staff continues to rise above those challenges and push the boundaries of what can be seen as possible.”
Developed in partnership with Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), the Liberty Modern Streetcar’s OESS utilizes a redundant lithium ion battery system to power the Dallas Streetcar over the one-mile Houston Street Viaduct, spanning the Trinity River, along a 1.6-mile rail corridor, making the Dallas Streetcar the first and only off-wire capable system to operate in the United States.
“Dallas has always been in the vanguard of North American light rail development and crossing the wide Trinity River to create a link to the Oak Cliff district required a new approach as there was no way that the landmark Houston Street Viaduct could be spoiled by overhead lines,” the Light Rail Awards judging committee said in a statement. “This forward-thinking agency has found the solution, however, through a close partnership with a domestic manufacturer to deliver the country’s first modern low-floor system that operates on battery power.”
In addition to BROOKVILLE earning the Technical Innovation of the Year, DART also earned the honor of being ‘Highly Commended’ for Project of the Year (over €50 million).
The Global Light Rail Awards are held annually in London to recognize achievements in the light rail industry around the world. UK-based publisher Mainspring hosts the ceremony on behalf of the Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA).
ABOUT BROOKVILLE EQUIPMENT CORPORATION – STREETCAR DIVISION
Headquartered in Brookville, Pa., in the scenic foothills of the Allegheny forests, Brookville Equipment Corporation is a world class American manufacturer of innovative powered transportation solutions for the mining/tunneling, rail freight and passenger transportation industries. BROOKVILLE contributed to the first American manufactured streetcars since the 1950s in 2001 and has modernized, manufactured and remanufactured PCC and heritage streetcars and trolleys for the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA), the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). Building upon the company’s 95 years of rail-mounted vehicle manufacturing experience and over a decade of streetcar manufacturing, BROOKVILLE introduced the innovative Liberty Modern Streetcar design in 2012, with the pilot order delivered to Dallas, Texas in 2015 and a second order currently underway for Detroit’s M-1 RAIL streetcar line.