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4/9/2026
The city of Portland’s Bureau of Transportation recently contracted CAF USA Inc. to manufacture and deliver 15 new vehicles for the Portland Streetcar Inc. service.
CAF will build the streetcars in its rail-car manufacturing facility in Elmira, New York. The new vehicles will be equipped with hybrid batteries to serve a new off-wire portion of the streetcar system as its NS Line expands to Montgomery Park in northwest Portland.
The expansion project is expected to break ground in 2028 and could launch revenue service by 2030 with the inclusion of the new CAF vehicles, Portland Streetcar officials said in a press release. Off-wire service will be a new element as part of an expansion project while also providing greater reliability for the rest of the system, they said.
The new vehicles will replace the original Czech-built streetcar fleet that entered service in 2001 and is nearing the end of its operating lifecycle and a few others that are in need of replacement due to age or damage.
“Replacing 25-year-old vehicles with brand new streetcars will be an improvement in the comfort, safety and reliability riders can expect, and sets the stage for the next 30 years of success,” said Portland Streetcar Executive Director Dan Bower.