NORWAY: The state-owned rolling stock company Norske Tog has exercised an option for Alstom to supply a further 25 Coradia Nordic regional electric multiple-units.
The €230m order announced on February 7 is the second to be placed under a framework agreement for up to 200 EMUs worth €1·8bn which was signed at the end of 2021. This included a firm order for an initial 30 trainsets, which are now being produced at Alstom’s Salzgitter plant in Germany for delivery from the end of 2025.
The Class 77 EMUs will be used on commuter and regional services from Oslo to Ski and Stabekk. The six-car 200 km/h units will have a capacity of 778 passengers, a 40% increase on the trains being replaced, with 294 ‘very comfortable’ seats arranged 2+2, and large multipurpose areas for bicycles, pushchairs and to provide standing space during the peaks. They will have low-floor entrances throughout, with wheelchair lifts for low platforms, dedicated wheelchair spaces, hearing loops and an accessible toilet.
They will be winterised for Norwegian conditions and equipped with ETCS as well as legacy signalling systems.
The new trains ‘will increase capacity on the busiest lines in the Oslo area and strengthen the emission-free public transport around the capital’, said Carl Åge Bjørgan, Managing Director of Alstom Transport Norway. ’Passengers will get a faster, more comfortable and more reliable commute.’
