30.01.09
Contract signature in Potsdam: Stadler Pankow receives an order for trams
ViP Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam GmbH signed the contract for the delivery of ten Variobahn trams by Stadler Pankow GmbH today. The order is linked to an option for a further eight vehicles. The low-floor trams will replace the present Tatra type KT4D trams in Potsdam from 2011.The value of the firm order for the vehicles is around €25 million with a further €20 million for the vehicles on option and a total order of around €45 million.
“We are particularly proud that the ViP has decided on the well-proven trams made by our company,” said Michael Daum, managing director of Stadler Pankow GmbH.“We are responsible within the Stadler group for the tram business worldwide, and we are very pleased that now, in Potsdam, we have a customer directly at our front door.The order will also contribute to maintaining jobs in the region.The Variobahn trams will be assembled in Berlin-Pankow and the manufacture of certain components and the initial start-up of the vehicles will be in our factory in Velten, in the district of Oberhavel.”
The chairman of the ViP supervisory board, mayor Burkhard Exner said: “The signature of this contract today means that we have reached a significant milestone and created the conditions in which we can move forward with the further development of the low-floor tram fleet in Potsdam. This will make public passenger transport in Potsdam even more attractive in the coming years. Passengers with mobility limitations, mothers and fathers with pushchairs and shoppers will benefit particularly from the low-floor design of the vehicles.”
ViP general manager Martin Weis added: "ViP Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam GmbH is sure that, in Stadler, it has found a competent and committed partner for the delivery of the new trams. The ViP is looking forward to a long-term partnership with Stadler Pankow GmbH for the benefit of passengers in Potsdam and both partners.”
The modular construction of the Variobahn is ideally suited to meet the needs of the region.The one-directional vehicles for Potsdam each have four doors and are 100% low-floor.They are 29.62 m long and 2.3 m wide. The 5-vehicle Variobahn sets can carry 180 passengers. The two multipurpose areas in each vehicle offer additional space for pushchairs, bulky items and wheelchairs.Air conditioning and large windows increase passenger comfort.
Stadler Pankow GmbH has facilities in Berlin and Velten and is the German member of the Swiss Stadler Rail Group.As well as construction of new rail vehicles, the production facilities also undertake modernisation, conversion and repairs.The supply of spare parts rounds out a full service.
Stadler Rail Group, the provider of customised system solutions for railed vehicle construction, has sites in Switzerland at Altenrhein, Bussnang and Winterthur, in Germany at Berlin-Pankow and Velten, Oberhavel district, in Poland at Siedlce, in Hungary at Budapest, Pusztascabolcz and Szolnok and in Algeria at Algiers.The group employs more than 2,200 men and women.
The best-known families of vehicles produced by the Stadler Rail Group are the GTW articulated power units with 440 trains sold, the Regio Shuttle RS1 with 402 trains sold and the agile, lightweight, innovative FLIRT regional vehicle, of which 514 have been sold in the railway segment and the Variobahn, with sales of 255 vehicles and the newly developed Tango, with 90 vehicles sold in the tramway segment.Stadler also produces carriages and diesel-electric locomotives and is the world’s leading producer of rack-and-pinion railway vehicles.
For further details of the Variobahn please contact:
Ulf Braker
Head of Tram Operations
Stadler Pankow GmbH
0049 (0)30 9191 1505
Katrin Block
Sales and Marketing
Stadler Pankow GmbH
0049 (0)30 9191 1501
www.stadlerrail.com
For further details on the ViP Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam GmbH please contact:
ViP Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam GmbH
A STADTWERKE POTSDAM GMBH company
Press spokesman
Stefan Klotz
Tel.: 0331 661 9709
Mail:stefan.klotz@swp-potsdam.de