Prague’s public transport company DPP announced its intention to acquire 200 new low-floor uni-directional LRVs in the next ten years and for this it will launch a tender to award the contract on the basis of an open negotiation. CZK 15 billion (EUR 615.9 million) is the total value for the entire new tram fleet. For new trams, DPP requires a minimum warranty of 36 months and a service life of at least 30 years from the delivery of the last vehicle from this contract.
DPP says that the deadline for applicants to apply for participation in the tender is December 19, 2022. The winner of the tender should be announced during the last quarter of 2023.
DPP will place a firm order for 40 trams in two tranches and will conclude a framework agreement with the supplier for the remaining light rail vehicle fleet. For the purchase of the first 20 uni-directional LRVs, DPP plans to use funding from the relevant call of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Czech Republic.
In addition to the purchase of up to 200 trams with a length of up to 32 metres, the contract also includes the development of software functions of the vehicles, the provision of a license for the software for diagnosing tram faults, technical documentation of the vehicle, training of DPP employees and ten sets of service tools.One set of service equipment includes, for example, eight idle bogies enabling the movement of trams during their servicing in DPP facilities, two emergency ones, orhandling undercarriages enabling, in the event of a tram fault in normal operation, to transport it to the DPP service facilities or a set for dismantling and reassembling the wheel rim and the possibility of replacing the rubber wheel segments under the conditions of the DPP depots.
The public transport company intends to sign the contract by December 2023 and the first batch of 20 LVRs are expected to be delivered between January and December 2025 with the next 20 LRV batch to be supplied gradually during 2026. DPP should receive the remaining 160 trams from January 2027 to December 2035, with no more than 30 LRVs to be delivered in one year.
The new LRVs should have a capacity of at least 220 passengers both seated and standing and should have minimum 60 seats of which at least 60% must be forward-facing. The high-floor area must not exceed 20% of the total interior area, with the low-floor area covering 80% of the total interior area of the vehicle.
The highest possible weight of the trams offered is 48 tonnes, with a deviation of plus/minus 5%. The trams will be equipped with full-car air conditioning and meet the currently valid PID quality standards.
The acquisition follows two rounds of preliminary market consultations for which DPP approached Alstom, CAF, Hyundai Rotem, Modertrans Poznań, Pesa Bydgoszcz, Pragoimex, Siemens, Stadler and Škoda Transportation.DPP received responses from eight companies in the first round, and from six entities in the second round of preliminary market consultations.
Prague is currently building the Modřany – Libuš and Divoká Šárka – Dědin light rail lines and recently has signed a contract for the construction of Holyně – Slivenec tram line. DPP will soon announce the contractor for the Václavské náměstí line with works expected to start in 2023. In addition, the City Council is planning and developing the construction of another 10 lines of which half could be built in the next five years. In the past four years, the company has intensively repaired and extended the tram network and the existing rolling stock needs to be modernised.
“New trams were last ordered to Prague more than 17 years ago. We will need more trams to service the lines we are building or will soon start building. In addition, some of the cars are still high-floor and they need to be replaced,” Adam Scheinherr, the deputy mayor for transport and chairman of the DPP supervisory board said.
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