SWITZERLAND: Baselland tram operator BLT has formally awarded Stadler a SFr125m contract to supply 25 TINA trams.
Stadler had been named preferred bidder in February. The contract signed on November 12 followed agreement on the vehicle specifications, together with the confirmation of funding from the federal government and the cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt and Solothurn.
The trams will be produced at Stadler’s Bussnang plant, with the first scheduled to enter service in December 2023 and the others following by September 2025. They will operate on Routes 10, 11, 11E and 17, replacing Schindler Be 4/8 Sänfte and Be 4/6 vehicles which are more than 40 years old.
There is an option for BLT to appoint Stadler to maintain the vehicles.
TINA
BLT will be the first Swiss operator of Stadler’s latest tram design, now designated Total Integrierter Niederflur-Antrieb (total integrated low-floor drive). The launch customer was HEAG Mobil in the Germany city of Darmstadt, which ordered 14 vehicles in January 2020 and a further 11 in July 2021.
Stadler said special attention had been paid to passenger comfort, including air-conditioning, a spacious interior, large windows and an integrated passenger information system.
The 1 000 mm gauge unidirectional trams for BLT will have a new design of bogie which is currently being tested on a Tango tram in Kraków. The low-floor cars will be ‘accessible from the first to the last passenger door’, with the 96 seats spaced to provide plenty of space for feet and knees. There will be provision for the future installation of sliding steps at the double doors.
They will be equipped with a collision warning system, similar to the Tramlink cars which BLT ordered in 2019 for use on the regauged Waldenburgerbahn, and .
‘The TINA tram was designed from scratch’, said BLT director Andreas Büttiker. ‘The spacious interior and large panoramic windows make the innovative vehicle particularly impressive. At the same time, the completely newly designed bogies guarantee the smooth running of the vehicle as well as low wear on wheels and rails. For us, this is the ideal combination that will allow us to satisfy customer needs and economic efficiency in the best possible way.’
