Cologne Public Transport Authority (KVB) and the consortium of Alstom and Kiepe Electric signed a contract for the supply of 64 low-floor Citadis trams with options for a total of 47 additional vehicle units.
EUR 363 million is the value of the contract of which 60% is Alstom’s share.
The first pre-series vehicles will be delivered to the Cologne Public Transport Authority from end of 2023. The series vehicles will follow one year later at the end of 2024.
Alstom is leading a consortium with partner Kiepe Electric, a subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse AG, the global market leader for braking and other systems for rail and commercial vehicles, that will build the new trams for Cologne’s Public Transport Authority.
“This is the largest single order in the history of Kiepe Electric. We are proud and at the same time forward-looking that a joint technical concept from companies of the Knorr-Bremse Group was convincing in the tender. We will justify the trust placed in us by our partner Alstom and the Cologne Public Transport Authority with future-proof technology and strong service,” said Jürgen Wilder, Member of the Executive Board of Knorr-Bremse AG and responsible for the Rail Vehicle Systems division comments.
Under the contract, Alstom will manufacture 62 60-metre-long trams and two low-floor vehicles with a length of around 30 meters at its Barcelona plant.
The electrical components of the trams will be supplied by Kiepe Electric’s Düsseldorf plant and will also be installed in the trams in Barcelona. The bogies for the Citadis trams will come from Alstom’s Le Creusot plant in France.
The low-floor Citadis trams will have large windows, LEDs for pleasant soft lighting, large individual seats and travel information on large screens. The equipment also includes innovations such as driver assistance systems, automatic dipped beam and rain sensors.
The trams each consist of two 30-metre low-floor vehicle units and thus have a total length of 60 metres, offering space for 195 passengers. 10 double doors on each side ensure an improved passenger flow into the tram way. Especially for the German market, the trams will have pivoting bogies for maximum vehicle flexibility and steel car bodies.
With drive-, on-board- and control technology as well as traction converters from Kiepe Electric, the trams will have reliable and modern electrical technology. The latest control technology will ensure safe, efficient and thus customer-friendly fleet traffic.
The pioneering vehicle concept is highly available, efficiently maintainable and includes a modern driver’s workplace. As a contribution to traffic safety in the metropolis of Cologne, the new vehicles will be equipped with a collision warning system.
Knorr-Bremse Group will also provide hydraulic braking systems from its Munich plant. The boarding systems will be delivered by IFE, Kematen (in Tirol), and innovative air-conditioning technology from Merak (Vienna).
On the one hand, with the use of a CO2-based refrigerant, and on the other hand, the concept of using waste engine heat to warm the passenger compartment is exemplary.
The new trams will operate throughout the entire urban area of Cologne and make a decisive contribution to inner-city mobility.
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