ROMANIA: The first 15 of 100 Imperio trams being supplied to Societatea de Transport București by a consortium of Astra Vagoane Călători and CRRC Qingdao Sifang entered service on December 10.
The first vehicles are being deployed on Route 41, enabling all services on that route to be operated using accessible trams. Subsequent Imperio trams will be allocated to routes 1, 10, 21, 25, 32, 40 and 55.
The €200m order co-financed by the EU was placed in May 2021.
The four-section 100% low-floor trams are 36 m long with a capacity of 322 passengers, including 56 seated. The unidirectional vehicles have five double-leaf doorways on one side, with bank card and NFC validators nearby. Features include air-conditioning, wi-fi, audiovisual passenger information and USB sockets.
The operator says the Imperio’s energy consumption is half of that of a locally built V3A tram and a third that of a Tatra tram, while the modern traction systems with AC motors also have lower maintenance requirements.
Drivers will benefit from modern operating conditions, with a spacious cab equipped with air-conditioning, internal and external CCTV and information about the status on onboard systems.
‘With the arrival of these trams, we offer the traveling public better travel conditions, which will lead them to use public transport more’, said STB Director General Adrian Criț. ‘In addition to improving the comfort and quality of the transport service, the new trams contribute to the efficiency of STB, which leads to the possibility of new investments beneficial to passengers’.
