CZECH REPUBLIC: Praha transport operator DPP has formally awarded Škoda Group an KC16·6bn eight-year framework contract covering the supply of up to 200 ForCity Plus Praha 52T trams, with a firm order for an initial 40.
Škoda was named preferred bidder in November. Stadler had also submitted a KC17·8bn bid based on its Tango design.
The first 20 trams are expected to be delivered by December 2025, and the next 20 by the end of 2026. The optional vehicles would enable the replacement of much of DPP’s high-floor tram fleet, if funding can be secured.
Designed for the streets of Praha
The design is ‘a combination of cutting-edge technical solutions of the 21st century and, at the same time, proven and technological principles tested in everyday operation in Praha’, said DPP Technical Director Jan Šurovský. ‘Therefore, I expect high operational reliability and really low maintenance costs.’
Announcing the confirmation of the contract on January 10, Škoda said the design takes into account Praha’s combination of narrow streets, sharp curves, steep gradients and significant height differences, but also long and relatively straight routes.
The five-section unidirectional trams will be 31·99 m long and 2 500 mm wide, 100% low-floor and step-free.
There will be 44 forward-facing and 26 rearward-facing padded seats and space for 173 standing passengers at 5/m2, a 16% increase in capacity from the 15T trams.
They will have a boarding height of 350 mm, five 1 300 mm wide double doors, air-conditioning, automatic passenger counting, six large information screens, LED interior and exterior lighting.
They will have a design speed of 80 km/h, empty weight of 48 tonnes and design life of 30 years.
Dako-CZ will produce the electromechanical braking system, and an anti-collision system will combine LiDAR and cameras with off-line recorded maps and odometry to create a ‘virtual driving tunnel’ in which the tram can detect obstacles.
Tram boom
‘Although Praha and DPP have purchased new Type 14T and 15T trams in the past 20 years, they served to replace unviable high-floor trams, but not to increase the number of available vehicles’, said Zdeněk Hřib, Deputy Mayor for Transport and Chair of the DPP supervisory board.
’At a time when new lines were not being built in Praha, this could have been enough. But we have started a tram boom. We are building new lines, last year we opened three lines with a total length of 5 km, and we are preparing more. This year, for example, we will start building on Václavského Náměstí.
‘The new lines alone, which we plan to build in the period 2024-27, will need 45 new trams. And it will be these 100% low-floor and quiet trams with an increased number of seats and an anti-collision system.’
