GERMANY: Škoda Transportation has presented a 16·5 m long mock-up of the ForCity Smart trams that it is supplying to Rhein-Neckar transport authority RNV in Mannheim.
Earlier this year RNV awarded Škoda Transportation a €250m contract to supply 80 trams, with options for 34 additional vehicles. They will operate on the metre-gauge network serving Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg, and the first is due to enter service in 2021.
Škoda is supplying 31 three-section trams of around 30 m, 37 four-section trams of around 40 m and 12 six-section trams almost 60 m long. To be assembled in Finland by Škoda subsidiary Transtech, the bidirectional low-floor vehicles will have a maximum speed of 80 km/h.
