AUSTRIA: Siemens announced an €145m order to supply Austrian Federal Railways with a further nine rakes of Railjet push-pull coaches on August 1. Delivery of the seven-car sets is scheduled for December 2016.
‘Thanks to the increased profitability in passenger services, we are able to make this investment on our own and are thus investing in even greater customer satisfaction’, said ÖBB Chief Executive Christian Kern.
ÖBB currently operates 51 Railjet sets in Austria, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland. The additional sets are to be used with existing Siemens Eurosprinter locomotives (branded Taurus by ÖBB) on the Westbahn route between Wien and Salzburg and will also be equipped to operate in Italy.
Designed for use at speed up to 230 km/h, Railjet vehicles form part of Siemens’ Viaggio Comfort family of inter-city coaches. Final assembly will be undertaken at Siemens’ passenger vehicle competence centre in Wien, with bogies supplied from Graz.
Each 186 m long set of coaches will comprise a driving trailer with business and first class seating, a bistro car with a wheelchair lift, and five open-saloon coaches including one with a family zone and a multi-purpose area.
The coaches in the latest batch are to be equipped with an ‘Ecojet’ energy-saving package comprising LED lighting and an air-conditioning system which will use CO2 sensors to detect the number of passengers and adjust its output to suit. Siemens expects this could reduce energy costs by more than €5m/year across the Railjet fleet.
