INNOTRANS: Alstom is showing a nine-section version of the Flexity Berlin family which with a length of 50·89 m – or, as is marked out along the floor, 10 elephants – is the longest tram ordered by the capital’s public transport operator BVG.
Branded Urbanliner by BVG, the trams will be used to increase capacity on Route M4 from Hackescher Markt to Falkenberg and Zingster Strasse, which carries up to 18 trams/direction/h and around 100 000 passengers/day.
In December 2020 BVG signed a €571m framework agreement for Bombardier Transportation, now part of Alstom, to supply up to 117 Flexity trams. This included a firm order for 17 of the extra-long trams to be delivered from the Bautzen factory from this summer to 2026.
The tram is 2 400 mm wide with 92 seats and space for 220 standees, 12 more passengers than a pair of GT6 trams. It has ‘the most luxurious tram driver’s seat available’, which Alstom intends to use on other vehicles.
The Bauhaus-inspired styling includes large windows and cabs offering the driver good all-round visibility.
They are BVG’s first trams without exterior mirrors, with CCTV being used instead. The ODAS driver assistance system warns of obstacles ahead.
The doors have warning sounds and green and red LEDs to indicate when passengers can board. The interior lighting changes between cold and warm white depending on the time of day and year.
Accessibility features include space for passengers with wheelchairs or pushchairs, grab bars near the doors with a golf ball style texture so that visually impaired people can feel when they are near the doors, and gap bridging for barrier-free entry.
There are seats with a height of 510 mm for people with limited mobility and lower seats at 400 mm for smaller people.
