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Originally Posted by ardecila
I dunno. After Nippon Sharyo's debacle trying to get bilevel cars to meet the FRA's buff strength requirements, Stadler's gotta be thinking twice.
All their other US orders will operate outside of the FRA regulatory environment, either because the railroads have sought and received waivers from those rules, or because they're considered rapid transit and don't fall under FRA jurisdiction.
I know FRA revised their rules recently, but IIRC they don't help Metra very much since their trains mix so much with freight, time separation or other techniques used to reduce collision risk don't apply here.
Metra Electric, as usual, is the exception... I agree it would be the perfect environment for Stadler bilevels. Rock Island also, since Metra keeps the freight traffic there to a minimum and it is grade separated from all intersecting railroads between the South Loop and New Lenox.
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The thing is that vehicles built under the new FRA Crash Energy Management rules (based on European standards) are actually safer in crashes, even with freight, than stuff built under the old buff strength regs. Think: modern cars with crumple zones vs. old heavy cars. Are you safer in a Tesla or a 1970s Volvo? Although old Volvos have a reputation for being built like a tank, modern standards and crash testing means that literally any vehicle built in 2019 is way, way safer than something from back then. FRA did not relax their standards of passenger safety when they approved CEM crash standards. CEM does not make mixed operation with freight less desirable or less safe. CEM is a more stringent standard period. FRA is just so slow that it took them literally decades to wake up.
Although the Stadler KISS are under a waiver in California, it is likely that it would meet the FRA CEM standards with a few relatively minor changes (different type of glass, emergency egress configuration, etc)