It is the largest procurement order in the history of BVG.
The framework agreement with Stadler contains up to ~1,500 cars that can be delivered by 2035. This framework agreement, signed in 2020, is worth 3 billion euros and also includes the supply of spare parts for 32 years.
The official handover of the first vehicle already took place earlier this year and since then BVG has been doing dynamic testing.
Today, however, Dr Rolf Erfurt, Chief Operating Officer of Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe and the CEO of Stadler Division Germany, Jure Mikolčić came together to jointly present the new train at InnoTrans.
The press conference got off on a slightly awkward foot when Dr Erfurt was asked to spontaneously put forward three terms that he thought of when he thought of the new trains. “Innovative, standardised, and Berlin,” he responded.
Mr Mikolčić, when asked the same question said: “It’s not standardised. If there’s one thing it’s not, it’s standard. It’s definitely modern, a modern vehicle, certainly innovative and very comfortable.”
“We have incorporated a lot of technology into the vehicle, which is not only innovative but also environmentally friendly.”
And here the two men agreed. The Berlin underground was greatly beneficial for the environment, Dr Erfurt said.
“We are very pleased that we are experiencing extremely high passenger demand. We are well above the pre-corona level again, i.e. well over one billion passenger journeys per year. The underground accounts for half of that. If you were to imagine that all of these journeys were made by car, it would be a major disaster for this city and also for our environment.”
There are in fact two different types of vehicles being produced by Stadler for the Berlin underground – the J series and the JK series, where the ‘K’ stands for ‘klein’ meaning ‘small’. The larger J series trains will run in the underground lines U5 to U9, while the smaller JK series trains will run in the older lines U1 to U4 as these have a smaller tunnel diameter.
“It's extremely important for us in maintenance that we can switch components between vehicles. I've always been asked why the focus is on the JK vehicles first, on the small profile vehicles? There is a very simple reason for this. Everything that fits into a small vehicle also fits into a large vehicle.”
Asked about the main features of the new underground trains, Mr Mikolčić highlighted the passenger Wi-Fi and the improved passenger information displays on board the trains that didn’t just give information about the next stop but also about where the ramps and lifts were located at upcoming stations.
“The large profile naturally has somewhat more generous multi-purpose areas and also three doors versus two doors. So you will still notice slight differences. Yes, it is accessible. I believe that over 90 percent of the stations that we call at will also have corresponding lifts, which means that people with limited mobility will hopefully find it much easier to use the vehicle.
“Emergency call pillars, everything is disabled-friendly. So there is a wealth of features that we have installed. Very importantly, the vehicle can automatically change the light. Rather warm light in winter, rather cooler light in summer.”
As is commonly the case with underground systems, the trains can get very warm. However, the new trains for Berlin don’t have air conditioning inside the passenger compartments. The effect would be that the trains would consequently emit more heat into the tunnels they run in, exacerbating the problem. However, there is cooling for the drivers who spend much more time on the trains.
Another feature of these trains is that they will be modular, which has benefits for the operator.
“This gives us the opportunity to put together vehicle configurations more flexibly and put them into passenger service. That's a huge advantage for us. It also gives us the opportunity, should there somehow be a damaged carriage because one is sprayed with graffiti by so-called artists, that we can perhaps just remove a single carriage and still continue to run.”
Given that this is the largest procurement order ever placed by BVG, Dr Erfurt was asked if such a large fleet – up to 1,500 vehicles – could actually be future-proof.
“The driving force behind the order is certainly that there has been insufficient investment for decades. It has to be said that our underground network is very old and some of the vehicles we have are 60 years old and I can see a number of colleagues here from our workshops and perhaps just for a moment, but this is spontaneous, a round of applause for colleagues who really do keep 60-year-old vehicles running.
“That is a huge achievement. It's unbelievable what they do there. They don't get any more spare parts, we all make them ourselves, so I'd like to mention our colleagues at BVG, who are really committed. Now let's look ahead. We have then said that if we go out to tender, we will really go out to a large tender in order to be able to order future-proof, to be able to order vehicles for the future. We wanted to move away from 100 cars here, 100 cars there, but really place a large order with a manufacturer in order to have a homogeneous fleet in the long term. This is, of course, a huge challenge and requirement on our part, also for the vehicle manufacturer.”
As these vehicles are being manufactured in Berlin despite this being such a large and complex order, getting the vehicle to InnoTrans was relatively straightforward, given the short distance.
However, the vehicles that have been delivered have covered quite a few kilometres in dynamic testing and during that time some adjustments have been made that have fed into the ongoing production process.
“They are from Berlin for Berlin. We use this vehicle ourselves. We travel with our children in this vehicle. When things are going well, neighbours at the barbecue will talk to us about what a great vehicle we have built. I can't reduce it to just one feature. We are simply proud of the fact that we have achieved this.”
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