Manufacturer St. Louis Car Company Number built 2 – married pair Car length 75 ft (22,860 mm) | Constructed 1973/74 Capacity 62-72 | |
 | ||
Width 9 ft 7 ⁄4 in (2,927 mm) | ||
State of the Art Car (SOAC) is a heavy rail mass transit demonstrator vehicle that was promoted by the United States Department of Transportation's Urban Mass Transportation Administration's (UMTA) Division in the mid 1970s.
Development and testing
A two car demonstrator, at the cost of $350,000 per car, was built by St. Louis Car Company (after winning bid over Budd Company, Pullman-Standard, Rohr Industries, and Vought Aeronautics) based on the R44 subway car for New York City and toured five American cities with subway systems: These were the very last railcars produced the venerable St. Louis Car Company, using the two remaining R44 subway car shells produced before the company ceased operations in early 1974. One of the cars could hold 220 passengers, while the other could hold 300.
The five American cities toured were as follows;
While the cars were well received, the concept did not catch on and was retired. Since this experiment, all future rapid transit cars were designed by manufacturers with input with clients and the USDOT stopped R&D work on public transit concepts. This was also the UMTA's one size fits all approach to rapid transit car design that did not fare well with many transit operators, since many systems could not accommodate 75' foot or 10'-6" wide subway equipment due to clearance issues.
The two car demonstrator is now owned by the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, and is currently a static display.