TURKEY: The first two of 19 five-car metro trainsets that CRRC is supplying to Izmir have left the factory in Tangshan and are due to arrive in the Turkish city at the end of August.
Ordered in March 2015 under a TL192m contract, the first of the new trains are due to enter service in May 2017. Deliveries are due to be completed by the end of 2017 and will increase the fleet to 182 metro cars.
The current metro fleet comprises 45 cars that ABB supplied for the opening of the city’s metro in 2000, and 42 cars supplied by CSR Zhuzhou in time for the opening of the first extension in 2012.
The new trains will feature a passenger counting system, optical detection of door obstructions and light strips in the door windows to show when a door is out of use.
The entry into service of the new vehicles is to coincide with the commissioning of upgraded signalling by Bombardier which will enable the current peak headways of 4 min to be brought down to 90 sec.
- A feature article on the Izmir metro and other rail projects in the city appears in the forthcoming September 2016 issue of Metro Report International.
