SWITZERLAND: Fribourg transport authority TPF has awarded Stadler a contract to supply 13 four-car Flirt Evo electric multiple-units to modernise its standard gauge fleet.
The SFr117m firm order announced on August 21 has been placed as an option on a framework contract for up to 510 regional EMUs which Swiss Federal Railways and its local subsidiaries Thurbo and RegionAlps awarded to Stadler in May 2022. In the procurement, SBB also represented TPF, Transports Publics Neuchâtelois and Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Jura.
The first of the TPF units is scheduled to enter service in December 2028, with the rest following at two-month intervals to enable the phased withdrawal of the existing Domino units.
Designed for regional services
The Flirt Evo EMUs are designed around the requirements of regional services, with a maximum speed of 160 km/h and high acceleration and braking which Stadler said would ‘save valuable seconds’ and contribute to reliability on routes with numerous stops and relatively short journey lengths.
The 73.5 m long EMUs will have wide doors for rapid boarding and alighting.
The interior is designed to be bright and open, with a total capacity of 369 passengers including 164 seats and spacious multi-purpose areas for bicycles, pushchairs and luggage. There will be ‘numerous’ power sockets.
Features to enable people with reduced mobility to use the trains independently will include step-free entrances, level transitions throughout, spaces for wheelchair users and an accessible toilet.
Rising passenger numbers
‘We are very much looking forward to these new trains entering service. Comfortable, equipped with state-of-the-art technology and offering high capacity, the Flirt Evo trains will help us cope with the rising passenger numbers on our routes’, said TPF Director General Serge Collaud.
In the long term, TPF’s standard gauge fleet will comprise eight Flirt and 13 Flirt Evo units. There are also 10 Flirt EMUs on the metre-gauge Palézieux – Bulle – Montbovon line.
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