What is 90 feet long and has a purple nose (and tail)?

Valley Metro and riders have celebrated several milestones for light rail and now there’s one more to add… newly painted purple and silver trains!

As with any home, building or piece of infrastructure, a little sprucing up or renovations are in order over time. Now that our light rail fleet has passed the age of 10, a new coat of paint matching our current bus fleet is the perfect refresh.

The current 50-car rail fleet will all be painted with the new colors. At the time of this publication, we have three repainted trains cruising through Phoenix, Mesa and Tempe. A fourth purple light rail vehicle will debut in mid-January. By the end of 2020, you should see more than half the rail fleet with the purple and silver paint scheme.

Painting 50 vehicles is no easy task! This isn’t just slapping a few coats of paint on and calling it a day. Our maintenance team paints one vehicle at a time, meticulously looking over every detail throughout the process. Once the train vehicle is fully painted, which takes about three weeks from start to end, it is held at the maintenance facility to cure. It is important for the paint to cure on the train to ensure longevity of the paint, as well as for removal and installation of advertising wraps.

We’re excited to continue serving riders in our newly painted purple and silver trains with brand new light rail vehicles also coming on board in 2020.

Source: Valley Metro