LA Metro Subway Refurbishment Clears Korea Test: First Overhauled A650 Rolls at Osong Woojin’s $213 million overhaul of 74 B and D Line cars is now in powered testing in Korea. By Allen Lee Published: Jun 06 2026, 15:46 PM EDT Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on RedditShare on FlipboardShare on Pocket exterior A train enters the station before the opening for the LAX/Metro Transit Center rail and bus public transportation station at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California on June 6, 2025. The LAX/Metro Transit Center will connect the LA Metro C and K light rail lines with the LAX Automated People Mover opening in 2026 ahead of the FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. AFP via Getty Images The first of Los Angeles Metro's long-delayed subway cars to be overhauled under a 213 million dollar Korean contract completed its maiden powered run at South Korea's national rail test track last month — a milestone that puts the Olympic-deadline refurbishment program back on track after six years of failure, litigation, and a $12 million settlement with the previous contractor. The two-car A650 trainset, painted canary yellow and stripped to its structural frame for rebuilding, arrived at the Korea Railroad Research Institute's Osong facility in North Chungcheong Province in April. It began rolling under its own power in early May when the test track was energized. The four trainsets being rebuilt in Korea are scheduled to complete a 3,000-mile burn-in run at Osong before being shipped to California, where they will undergo additional testing on LA's own lines. First delivery to Los Angeles is targeted for October 2027. The remaining 33 trainsets will be overhauled at Woojin's newly completed factory in Carson, California — a facility completed in 2025 that also satisfies the Buy America localization requirements embedded in the federal transit contract. Why LA Metro Is Running 30-Year-Old Subway Cars Into the Olympics The B (Red) and D (Purple) lines carry hundreds of thousands of riders a day through downtown Los Angeles and into Koreatown. The A650 cars running on those lines — built by Italy's AnsaldoBreda between 1988 and 1997 — have been in service for nearly three decades. LA Metro's Rail Fleet Management Plan requires maintaining them in a state of good repair through at least the 2028 Games and beyond. The refurbishment was supposed to be finished by now. In September 2016, LA Metro awarded a contract to Spain's Talgo — whose US operations are based in Milwaukee — to overhaul the 74-car fleet. The program stalled. COVID-19 disrupted supply chains and staffing, and the two sides' accounts of what followed diverged sharply. By spring 2022, Talgo had completed meaningful work on roughly 14 cars. LA Metro terminated the contract that year, citing non-performance. Talgo filed a countersuit claiming the authority owed it $48.8 million; LA Metro's suit alleged Talgo was withholding cars to gain leverage. The litigation dragged on for three years before a settlement in June 2025, under which LA Metro paid Talgo $12 million and both parties' suits were dismissed. The six-year gap between Talgo's departure and the delivery of the first refurbished Woojin car is itself an engineering problem. As LA Metro's board noted in a 2025 procurement filing, components and systems that were current when Talgo won the job in 2016 had become obsolete by the time Woojin began work in 2024 — requiring additional replacement scope and increased engineering cost. How Woojin Rebuilds a 30-Year-Old Subway Car Woojin Industrial Systems, founded in 1974, built its business around an unusual vertical integration model: the company designs and manufactures more than 90 percent of the electrical systems it installs in railcars, according to CEO Kim Jung-hyun. That characteristic matters for a refurbishment program because the original A650 cars were assembled by AnsaldoBreda using subsystems from multiple vendors — each with its own communication protocol, power architecture, and maintenance history. After 30 years, many of those original suppliers no longer exist, their components are no longer manufactured, and their documentation has fragmented. Woojin's approach is replacement rather than repair. Each car is stripped of its electrical architecture and rebuilt with a unified new system. The work covers VVVF (Variable Voltage, Variable Frequency) propulsion control, which governs how 750-volt DC third-rail power is converted into variable alternating current to drive the traction motors; the auxiliary power supply, which provides onboard power for lighting, doors, HVAC, and control systems; the train control and monitoring system (TCMS), the car's onboard diagnostic and network management computer; passenger information displays; and public address equipment. HVAC units are replaced entirely. Because Woojin builds the VVVF inverters, auxiliary power units, and TCMS in-house and designs them as an integrated system, the rebuilt A650 does not inherit the interoperability problems that arise when multiple third-party replacement components must be made to communicate with one another across incompatible legacy bus architectures. That is one technical reason the company argued it could complete a job that had defeated its predecessor. The 3,000-mile burn-in run at the Osong test track is the final stage of Korean-phase qualification. The track, operated by the Korea Railroad Research Institute and used for high-speed and urban rail verification programs across South Korea's transit industry, subjects the rebuilt car to sustained load cycling across the full operating speed range. This surfaces integration failures in the replaced electrical systems that would not appear under static bench testing. After Osong, the cars ship to Los Angeles for line-specific testing before entering revenue service. What Woojin Built to Win the Contract Woojin established its US subsidiary and a production plant in the Los Angeles area in 2011, supplying component-level systems — including display devices, driver cabin equipment, and auxiliary power units — to transit agencies in Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Utah. That US track record was a prerequisite for the A650 contract, and LA Metro required demonstrated stateside manufacturing capability both as evidence of engineering competence and to satisfy Buy America content requirements. The Carson factory, completed in 2025, is where the bulk of the overhaul will happen. Once the first four Korean-refurbished trainsets complete their Osong qualification run and are shipped to LA, Woojin's Carson crews will work through the remaining 33 trainsets — 66 cars — on American soil. The factory was built specifically for this contract, but Woojin has said it intends to use it as a platform for future US bids. Juan Matute, deputy director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, has written about how LA Metro's compressed Olympic timelines can constrain procurement choices — leaving the authority in a position where sole-bidder contracts or accelerated awards become necessary to meet fixed political deadlines. The Woojin contract was awarded as a sole-source selection after no other qualified bidder emerged for a second time following Talgo's departure. Is LA Metro Ready for 2028? With first delivery now targeting October 2027 and the final car not scheduled until April 2029, the A650 overhaul will not be complete before the Games. But the relevant benchmark is not full fleet renewal — it is whether enough refurbished cars are in service by July 2028 to maintain reliable frequency on the B and D lines during peak Olympic demand. 洛杉矶地铁更广泛的准备工作包括D线地铁延伸段，该线路第一段已于2026年5月8日开通，另有两段途经比佛利山庄、世纪城和西木区的线路仍在建设中，计划于2027年开通。此外，洛杉矶地铁还与现代Rotem公司签订了一份价值7.3亿美元的合同，用于采购182辆新的重型轨道车辆，不过这些车辆将用于延伸后的D线，而不是直接替换现有线路上的A650型列车。 具体来说，对于A650机队而言，从现在到奥运会期间，该项目的成功与否将取决于宇进飞机公司能否保持目前的生产速度，以及卡森工厂能否按计划完成——而不会像第一次那样，因为承包商的失败而耗时六年。 常见问题解答 洛杉矶地铁为何需要翻新其 A650 型地铁列车？ A650车队于1988年至1997年间制造，已服役近30年。联邦交通运输法规要求各机构保持轨道车辆的良好运行状态，而A650的许多原始部件——包括推进控制电子设备和空调系统——已达到使用寿命，并且原供应商已停止生产。 Talgo公司承接的同一翻新工程合同后来怎么样了？ 2016年，洛杉矶地铁公司与西班牙塔尔戈公司签订合同，负责翻新74辆A650型列车。然而，塔尔戈公司仅完成了约14辆列车的实质性翻新工作，洛杉矶地铁公司便以塔尔戈公司履约不力为由于2022年终止了合同。双方随后互相提起诉讼；最终，纠纷于2025年6月达成和解，洛杉矶地铁公司向塔尔戈公司支付了1200万美元，双方的诉讼均被驳回，且不得再次提起。 Woojin Industrial Systems是哪家公司？洛杉矶地铁为什么选择他们？ 宇进是一家韩国轨道车辆制造商，成立于1974年。该公司自主设计和制造超过90%的电气化轨道系统，包括安装在改造后的A650型列车上的VVVF驱动控制器和辅助动力装置。宇进是该合同的唯一合格竞标者，并自2011年起在洛杉矶地区设有美国子公司。 翻新后的洛杉矶地铁列车能否赶上 2028 年奥运会？ 首批翻新的A650型列车计划于2027年10月交付给洛杉矶，这将给洛杉矶地铁公司大约9个月的时间，以便在2028年夏季奥运会开幕前将其投入运营。整个车队的全面更新预计要到2029年4月才能完成。

LA Metro Subway Refurbishment Clears Korea Test: First Overhauled A650 Rolls at Osong

Woojin’s $213 million overhaul of 74 B and D Line cars is now in powered testing in Korea.

By Allen Lee

Published: Jun 06 2026, 15:46 PM EDT

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exterior

A train enters the station before the opening for the LAX/Metro Transit Center rail and bus public transportation station at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California on June 6, 2025. The LAX/Metro Transit Center will connect the LA Metro C and K light rail lines with the LAX Automated People Mover opening in 2026 ahead of the FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. AFP via Getty Images

The first of Los Angeles Metro's long-delayed subway cars to be overhauled under a 213 million dollar Korean contract completed its maiden powered run at South Korea's national rail test track last month — a milestone that puts the Olympic-deadline refurbishment program back on track after six years of failure, litigation, and a $12 million settlement with the previous contractor.

The two-car A650 trainset, painted canary yellow and stripped to its structural frame for rebuilding, arrived at the Korea Railroad Research Institute's Osong facility in North Chungcheong Province in April. It began rolling under its own power in early May when the test track was energized. The four trainsets being rebuilt in Korea are scheduled to complete a 3,000-mile burn-in run at Osong before being shipped to California, where they will undergo additional testing on LA's own lines. First delivery to Los Angeles is targeted for October 2027. The remaining 33 trainsets will be overhauled at Woojin's newly completed factory in Carson, California — a facility completed in 2025 that also satisfies the Buy America localization requirements embedded in the federal transit contract.

Why LA Metro Is Running 30-Year-Old Subway Cars Into the Olympics

The B (Red) and D (Purple) lines carry hundreds of thousands of riders a day through downtown Los Angeles and into Koreatown. The A650 cars running on those lines — built by Italy's AnsaldoBreda between 1988 and 1997 — have been in service for nearly three decades. LA Metro's Rail Fleet Management Plan requires maintaining them in a state of good repair through at least the 2028 Games and beyond.

The refurbishment was supposed to be finished by now. In September 2016, LA Metro awarded a contract to Spain's Talgo — whose US operations are based in Milwaukee — to overhaul the 74-car fleet. The program stalled. COVID-19 disrupted supply chains and staffing, and the two sides' accounts of what followed diverged sharply. By spring 2022, Talgo had completed meaningful work on roughly 14 cars. LA Metro terminated the contract that year, citing non-performance. Talgo filed a countersuit claiming the authority owed it $48.8 million; LA Metro's suit alleged Talgo was withholding cars to gain leverage. The litigation dragged on for three years before a settlement in June 2025, under which LA Metro paid Talgo $12 million and both parties' suits were dismissed.

The six-year gap between Talgo's departure and the delivery of the first refurbished Woojin car is itself an engineering problem. As LA Metro's board noted in a 2025 procurement filing, components and systems that were current when Talgo won the job in 2016 had become obsolete by the time Woojin began work in 2024 — requiring additional replacement scope and increased engineering cost.

How Woojin Rebuilds a 30-Year-Old Subway Car

Woojin Industrial Systems, founded in 1974, built its business around an unusual vertical integration model: the company designs and manufactures more than 90 percent of the electrical systems it installs in railcars, according to CEO Kim Jung-hyun. That characteristic matters for a refurbishment program because the original A650 cars were assembled by AnsaldoBreda using subsystems from multiple vendors — each with its own communication protocol, power architecture, and maintenance history. After 30 years, many of those original suppliers no longer exist, their components are no longer manufactured, and their documentation has fragmented.

Woojin's approach is replacement rather than repair. Each car is stripped of its electrical architecture and rebuilt with a unified new system. The work covers VVVF (Variable Voltage, Variable Frequency) propulsion control, which governs how 750-volt DC third-rail power is converted into variable alternating current to drive the traction motors; the auxiliary power supply, which provides onboard power for lighting, doors, HVAC, and control systems; the train control and monitoring system (TCMS), the car's onboard diagnostic and network management computer; passenger information displays; and public address equipment. HVAC units are replaced entirely.

Because Woojin builds the VVVF inverters, auxiliary power units, and TCMS in-house and designs them as an integrated system, the rebuilt A650 does not inherit the interoperability problems that arise when multiple third-party replacement components must be made to communicate with one another across incompatible legacy bus architectures. That is one technical reason the company argued it could complete a job that had defeated its predecessor.

The 3,000-mile burn-in run at the Osong test track is the final stage of Korean-phase qualification. The track, operated by the Korea Railroad Research Institute and used for high-speed and urban rail verification programs across South Korea's transit industry, subjects the rebuilt car to sustained load cycling across the full operating speed range. This surfaces integration failures in the replaced electrical systems that would not appear under static bench testing. After Osong, the cars ship to Los Angeles for line-specific testing before entering revenue service.

What Woojin Built to Win the Contract

Woojin established its US subsidiary and a production plant in the Los Angeles area in 2011, supplying component-level systems — including display devices, driver cabin equipment, and auxiliary power units — to transit agencies in Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Utah. That US track record was a prerequisite for the A650 contract, and LA Metro required demonstrated stateside manufacturing capability both as evidence of engineering competence and to satisfy Buy America content requirements.

The Carson factory, completed in 2025, is where the bulk of the overhaul will happen. Once the first four Korean-refurbished trainsets complete their Osong qualification run and are shipped to LA, Woojin's Carson crews will work through the remaining 33 trainsets — 66 cars — on American soil. The factory was built specifically for this contract, but Woojin has said it intends to use it as a platform for future US bids.

Juan Matute, deputy director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, has written about how LA Metro's compressed Olympic timelines can constrain procurement choices — leaving the authority in a position where sole-bidder contracts or accelerated awards become necessary to meet fixed political deadlines. The Woojin contract was awarded as a sole-source selection after no other qualified bidder emerged for a second time following Talgo's departure.

Is LA Metro Ready for 2028?

With first delivery now targeting October 2027 and the final car not scheduled until April 2029, the A650 overhaul will not be complete before the Games. But the relevant benchmark is not full fleet renewal — it is whether enough refurbished cars are in service by July 2028 to maintain reliable frequency on the B and D lines during peak Olympic demand.

LA Metro's broader readiness effort includes the D Line subway extension, which opened its first section on May 8, 2026, with two additional sections through Beverly Hills, Century City, and Westwood still under construction and scheduled to open in 2027. A separate $730 million contract with Hyundai Rotem for 182 new heavy-rail cars is also underway, though those vehicles are destined for the extended D Line rather than directly replacing A650 cars on existing alignments.

For the A650 fleet specifically, the program's success between now and the Games will depend on Woojin sustaining its current production pace and the Carson factory executing on schedule — without the kind of contractor failure that consumed six years the first time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did LA Metro need to refurbish its A650 subway cars?

The A650 fleet, built between 1988 and 1997, has been in service for nearly three decades. Federal transit rules require agencies to maintain rail fleets in a state of good repair, and many of the A650's original components — including propulsion control electronics and HVAC systems — have reached the end of their service lives and are no longer manufactured by their original suppliers.

What happened to the Talgo contract for the same refurbishment?

LA Metro awarded Spain's Talgo a contract in 2016 to overhaul the 74 A650 cars. Talgo completed meaningful work on only about 14 cars before LA Metro terminated the contract for non-performance in 2022. Both parties sued each other; the dispute was settled in June 2025 when LA Metro paid Talgo $12 million and both lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice.

Who is Woojin Industrial Systems and why did LA Metro pick them?

Woojin is a South Korean rolling stock manufacturer founded in 1974. The company designs and manufactures more than 90 percent of its own electrical rail systems in-house, including the VVVF propulsion controllers and auxiliary power units being installed in the rebuilt A650 cars. It was the only qualified bidder for the contract and has operated a US subsidiary in the Los Angeles area since 2011.

Will the refurbished LA Metro subway cars be ready for the 2028 Olympics?

The first refurbished A650 cars are targeted for delivery to Los Angeles in October 2027, giving LA Metro approximately nine months to integrate them into service before the Games begin in summer 2028. The full fleet overhaul is not scheduled for completion until April 2029.