Swiss firm Stadler gets CHF 1 billion order
Ed. note: train photos to follow
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The SBB/CFF rail company has ordered 29 new trains for the St Gotthard line, which currently has 9,000 passengers a day, with 15,000 expected by 2020 and more than 18,000 by 2025.
Swiss firm Stadler was given the order after a lengthy and complex bidding process that saw French Alstom and Spanish firm Talgo also making offers. The trains will be built in canton Thurgau and the CFF has retained an option to buy an additional 92 trains.
The sharp increase on the St Gotthard line is due to the new tunnels, St Gotthard and Ceneri, currently under construction, which will travel at higher speeds, but also to the general increase in the number of rail passengers.
The new trains will be put into service gradually starting in 2019. The CFF is also buying an additional six ETR 610 trains to complement those already in service, as an interim measure. The trains currently on the St Gotthard will be moved to the Simplon line eventually.
The CFF says it will be spending about CHF1 billion a year on rolling stock in the next few years.
The new 400-metre long trains will have a top speed of 249kph, with 400 seats. The current ETR 470 trains are 230 metres long and seating capacity in the new trains will be 40 percent greater. They will have a lower access ramp, to meet the needs of handicapped persons, but also an older clientele and people traveling with luggage and baby strollers. Toilets – separate ones for men and women – and connections between first and second class as well as the restaurant car are wide enough for wheelchairs.
The trains will have family, work space and silent cars, large luggage spaces, electric plugs for every seat and a system that allows cell phones to work continually.