Further Success for Stadler’s Suburban Trains

The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has ordered another 31 four-carriage FLIRTs (Fast Light Innovative Regional Train) from Stadler Bussnang AG. With this or-der, the SBB redeems a second tranche of the option on up to 100 rail vehicles in the 26 September 2002 SBB contract – these in addition to the 42 rail vehicles de-livered to Stadtbahn Zug and the Regio-S-Bahn Basel. The 31 FLIRTs will operate as dual-system vehicles on the Ticino/Lombardy (TILO) rail network in 2007 and on the S-Bahn Basel network in Alsace (Mulhouse) in 2008. The volume of this order, including authorisation, amounts to approximately 279 million Francs.

The placing of this order is an added success for Stadler’s S-Bahn trains. The production target for the delivery of the first FLIRTs was very energetic. Stadler delivered the first seven FLIRTs to SBB just 27 months after the order was placed, well in keeping with contract terms. These first seven FLIRTs have been running on the Stadbahn Zug network since the 12.12.2004 schedule change, as before, without any significant disruptions. Passengers have high praise for these vehicles due to the boarding ease and the exceptionally quiet ride they provide.

The 19 four-part TILO-FLIRTs are two-system railcars equipped with alternating and direct current and automatic train control for the routes in Switzerland and Italy. The 12 four-part Mulhouse FLIRTs have a dual-frequency system for Switzerland and France at their disposal. The low-floor throughout the full length and the wide, level and gapless low-floor entrances allow for a speedy exchange of passengers. The TILO-FLIRT boasts more than 182 seats and standing place for 244. The Mulhouse FLIRT offers places for 180 to sit and 197 standing passengers with the same interior height and 8 doors per side as the 30 FLIRTs already on order for the Basel S-Bahn. In this way, the regional and suburban FLIRT trains will assume an important transport role in the cross-border passenger services between Switzerland and the surrounding countries of Germany, France, and Italy