Nippon Sharyo

And really, since all transportation is subsidized no matter what, especially roads, it's actually kind of nice to see a bi-functional municipal rail infrastructure, something that provides local, convenient customer service for both passengers and freight companies.

As I mentioned earlier, Smart was originally planning to use the Colorado Railcar DMUs, but they instead chose DMUs designed by Nippon Sharyo, which is the same company that manufactures a lot of the Shinkansens in Japan, as well as produces some domestic Japanese DMUs, but then also has a foot in the American market, creating a lot of bud-like EMUs primarily in the Chicago area.

Smart's 18 Nippon Sharyu DMUs in question are specifically designed for the US market, meaning they are FRA crash-worthy compliant and can freely intermix passenger and freight trains on the same line at the same time.

These vehicles are 26 meters long and 68 metric tons, so very short and very heavy compared to all the other DMUs we've seen so far.