Budd Universal Transit Vehicle

The Budd Universal Transit Vehicle was a heavy rail electric multiple unit that the Budd Company built between 1983 and 1986 under the name Transit America, at its Red Lion plant in Northeast Philadelphia. Baltimore and Miami built their rapid transit systems at the same time and saved money by sharing a single order, so the cars on the Baltimore Metro SubwayLink and the Miami-Dade Metrorail look identical. They take power from the electric third rail, are 75 feet long and 10 feet wide, reach 70 miles per hour and carry up to 166 passengers, 76 seated and 90 standing. They run in semi-permanent married pairs, arranged as four-car trains on Metrorail and as two, four and six-car consists on SubwayLink. The SubwayLink fleet was overhauled between 2002 and 2005 with new seats, floors and LED destination displays. Miami-Dade judged its cars poorly maintained and bought 136 replacements from AnsaldoBreda, now Hitachi Rail Italy, with the first in service in December 2017, and Maryland has bought 78 more to replace the SubwayLink cars.