24 years out of the original LRV's with no mid age rebuild is actually pretty good. They are replacing these aging and beaten fleets on the Blue Line/Expo Line, and increasing the fleet for all lines, not just the Blue line. It is my understanding that some sub stations are being upgraded, and added, to allow for more power needs, and modernized for less energy use.

The Blue line has been somewhat underpowered since it was built, and has struggled with the 90,000 plus daily ridership on 3 car trains, instead of the forecast 2010 "50,000" originally projected by SCAG on 2 car trains. This ridership already prompted MTA to do a retrofit for the 3 car platforms added to the Blue Line a few years ago.

Since I don't see a credible source to break out the purported "$1.2 BBBBBBBillion", I don't know what this would purportedly include. But, I doubt this entire package is for the Blue line, unless it contains significant new grade separations. That is still a lot of money, even these days.....and much more than constructing even some new things like the Gold Line extension, so sourcing of those kinds of assertions would be nice to see.

Siemens is an international company who assembles LRV's and Locomotives in the state of California, using parts from all over the world (like Ford?).