GERMANY: Berlin transport operator BVG has unveiled the Bauhaus-inspired styling of its next generation of Flexity trams.
Features will include large windows and cabs designed to provide the driver with good all-round visibility, and BVG’s traditional yellow livery.
‘Now that the essential details of the design have been confirmed, we can reveal the secret’, said BVG board member Dr Rolf Erfurt on March 16. ‘Our new trams are unmistakably a member of the Berlin tram family and yet have their very own face. With a fresh design and contemporary features, the new vehicles — just like their predecessors in more than 150 years of Berlin tram history — will shape the image of our city. We hope that our passengers like the trams as much as we do.’
In December 2020 BVG signed a €571m framework agreement with Bombardier Transportation, now part of the Alstom group, for the supply of up to 117 trams and the provision of spare parts for 32 years.
This included a €115m firm order for an initial three 30 m five-section and 17 extra-long 50 m nine-section trams.
The shorter trams will be used on routes in southeast Berlin, while the nine-section versions, the first of their length in Berlin, are intended use on Route M4 where GT6 trams currently operate in pairs.
