Strukton Rail has equipped the airport shuttles at O’Hare airport in Chicago with new propulsion systems. The replacement of the outdated propulsion systems will prolong the life of the trains with 20 years.

14 million passengers
US transit company O’Hare Airport Transit System (OATS) is responsible for connecting the terminals and the parking of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Yearly the shuttles transport over 14 million passengers.

Reuse of vital components
Since spare parts were no longer available, the propulsion systems of the trains had to be updated. Vital components from the existing system were reused for the new units. The modernised system had to be integrated seamlessly with the Automatic Train control System (ATC) that operates the trains fully automatically, without interference of a human driver.

Customer fully satisfied
In the summer of 2007, an extremely thorough design process was followed by successful tests. In November 2007 the first upgraded trains were in operation to the full satisfaction of the customer.

Strukton Rail executed this project in cooperation with Converteam Canada Inc. This Toronto-based firm was responsible for the final assembly and will remain the local contact for service issues.    

Down-time kept to a minimum
The new equipment – an IGBT DC chopper with associated control system – is mounted in one single container. It replaces the existing 20 year old GTO-based motor control box. Installation is very easy because existing interfaces and vehicle cabling are used. Therefore, the vehicle down-time for installing the modernised system is kept to a minimum.

In order to operate and maintain the new equipment OATS staff have been trained extensively. For additional support a full documentation package and a software monitoring tool have been delivered.