UK: The first two of 17 trainsets that Stadler is supplying to replace the Glasgow Subway fleet entered passenger service with a soft launch on the afternoon on December 11.
The trains have been custom-made to the unique specifications of the 10·5 km circular underground line, which has a very small profile with 3·4 m diameter tunnels and an unusual 1 220 mm narrow track gauge; when the first trainset was unveiled at InnoTrans 2018, one visitor surprised at the small size was heard to describe it as a ‘hobbit metro’.
The aluminium-bodied vehicles were assembled at Stadler’s Altenrhein factory in Switzerland, with Selectron control systems and ABB traction converters. They draw power at 600 V DC from a third rail and have a maximum speed of 58 km/h.
The cars are 2 340 mm wide and 2 650 mm high. The four-car sets have the same 39·2 m overall length as the three-car trains they are replacing, but feature walk-through gangways.
Operator Strathclyde Partnership for Transport told Metro Report International that the new trains would now run in passenger service ‘intermittently’, as the roll-out of the fleet ramps up during 2024. There is no fixed timescale for full introduction, as all sets must undergo final testing and a period of fault-free running before finally being handed over to SPT. The old trains will be withdrawn from service as new trains are introduced.
Modernisation programme
The trains are just one element of a comprehensive Subway modernisation programme, with the £200m contract awarded to a consortium of Stadler and Ansaldo STS (now Hitachi) in 2016 including the supply of signalling, telecoms, an operations control centre and platform screen doors.
Tunnel infrastructure repairs have also been undertaken under separate contracts.
The trains were originally expected to enter service in October 2020. SPT told Metro Report International that the timescale had been put back as the Covid-19 pandemic had affected the infrastructure works, and it had faced challenges updating ‘a very old system with new modern equipment while running passenger services everyday’.
Work continues to replace the signalling and communications system. An operational control centre is to be commissioned and half-height platform screen doors installed at the 15 stations.
Once this is completed, SPT will look to switch from GoA2 attended semi-automatic train operation with drivers to fully automated GoA4 unattended operation.
‘There are still a couple of challenging key milestones to be reached before we can say Subway modernisation is complete’, said SPT Project Director Mark Toner. ‘For passengers, the new trains are the most important part of the programme as they are something tangible they can see. However, this is a brand new, complex state-of-art system going into a very old network and that does, frustratingly for us all, take time to deliver.’
