GERMANY: The first of 58 T-series trams that Alstom is supplying to Frankfurt am Main entered service on Route 17 with the December 11 timetable change.
Operator VGF initially awarded Alstom a €100m contract for 38 trams, based on the Citadis SX05 platform, and subsequently exercised options for a further 20 vehicles.
The orders cover 24 three-section trams which are 31·5 m long with capacity for 191 passengers and 34 four-section vehicles of 40 m which can accommodate 248 passengers. All trams will have a passenger information system and USB sockets.
The first vehicles to enter service are the shorter three-section cars. The longer vehicles are expected to enter service on the heavily used Route 11 from the end of 2023, with all deliveries to be completed by 2025.
However, VGF has decided to make all T-series trams up to four-section vehicles to accommodate rising demand. This will require the retrofitting of an extra module to the shorter trams already ordered.
Most platforms are able to accommodate the longer trams, but some will have to be extended, with the work starting in early 2023. All new or rebuilt tram stops will in future be configured to take 40 m vehicles.
‘We are continuously modernising our rolling stock’, explained Councillor Stefan Majer, head of the city’s Department for Mobility & Health. ‘Most recently, in last December, we started commissioning the intermediate cars on U-Bahn line U5. With these middle sections, which can be integrated into the existing vehicles, we are significantly increasing the capacity on the subway lines.’
‘We are now bringing new trams into passenger service one after the other and can thus replace older “Pt” and “R” type cars. As we are putting more vehicles into operation than we are taking out, we are able to meet the additional demand resulting from the growing population well into the next decade.’
