19.03.09
The Variobahn has arrived - the first lady from Berlin is greeted with a celebration in Munich
Stadler Pankow GmbH was successful in the summer of 2005 in winning a Europe-wide tender and is delivering the first of a total of 14 Variobahn trams to Stadtwerke München in Munich today.
“We have now arrived at one of the happiest milestones in such a contract,” said Michael Daum, CEO of Stadler Pankow GmbH, “the handover of the first vehicle. The period between being awarded the contract and delivery is the hardest for us as manufacturer but nevertheless one of the most pleasant - the creation of a modern means of transport to meet the needs of today.”
The Variobahn for Munich has been specially tailored to the needs of its citizens and has video monitoring of the passenger space and an up-to-date passenger information system.
Particular weight was placed on the needs of passengers with limited mobility, therefore a lift as well as a fold-out ramp has been fitted in.
The Variobahn provides space for both baby carriages and wheelchairs in the entrance areas. The new vehicles provide 75 seats and standing room for 146 passengers and will enter passenger service following training and testing runs throughout the city of Munich.
The maximum speed of the one-direction vehicle is 70 kph. Air conditioning provides a pleasant climate in both summer and winter.
Stadler Pankow GmbH has facilities in Berlin and Velten and is the German company of the Swiss Stadler Rail Group as well as being the group's Competence Centre for trams and urban transport vehicles.
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, in Poland at Siedlce, in Hungary at Budapest, Pusztascabolcz and Szolnok and in Algeria at Algiers. The group has more than 2 400 employees. The best-known families of vehicles produced by the Stadler Rail Group are the GTW articulated railcar (453 trains sold), the Regio Shuttle RS1 (402 trains sold) and the FLIRT (514 trains sold) in the railway segment and the Variobahn (255 vehicles sold) and the newly developed Tango (90 vehicles sold) in the tramway segment. Stadler also manufactures passenger coaches and diesel-electric locomotives and is the world’s leading producer of rack-and-pinion railway vehicles.
For further details please contact:
Michael Daum
CEO Germany
Stadler Pankow GmbH
0049 (0)30 9191 1500
Katrin Block
Sales and Marketing
Stadler Pankow GmbH
0049 (0)30 9191 1501
www.stadlerrail.com