AUSTRIA: Operator Graz Linien formally signed a contract for Alstom to supply and maintain 15 Flexity trams on January 31, when the future styling was unveiled.
Alstom had been selected for the contract in May 2023. Production is to be undertaken in Wien from later this year, with the first of the trams expected to be in daily service by November 2025.
At 33·81 m, the five-section trams will be 6 m longer than Graz’s existing Stadler Variobahn and Bombardier Transportation Cityrunner trams, with a higher capacity at 200 passengers including 60 seated and two wheelchair spaces.
Lilian Meyer, Managing Director of Alstom Austria, said ’with the world’s lowest entry height of 215 mm and a step-free interior, the Flexity tram is 100% barrier-free’.
Deputy Mayor Judith Schwentner said ‘the purchase of the new trams is another milestone for public transport in Graz’. The vehicles would be ’ultra-modern and completely barrier-free’, to make tram travel ‘even more attractive for everyone’, on the existing network as well as on the city centre relief line which is to open in 2025 and on Route 5 to Puntigam which is being double-tracked.
Councillor for Finance Manfred Eber said the procurement was one of the city’s largest projects in recent decades, with €68m to be spent on the trams and an additional double-digit million amount on associated infrastructure. ‘The city of Graz is investing a total of around €100m in the future of public transport’, he said.
