Arriva Nederland awarded Stadler a contract to retrofit 36 Flirt trains with Guardia ETCS solution. The fleet of 36 trains includes 8 trains that have already been used for cross-border operation on the international train line RE18 in Limburg. The assignment will be executed between 2020 and 2024. The first refitted trains will enter operation on the cross-border track in 2022.
Arriva is the first regional rail operator in the Netherlands to retrofit its train fleet to make its trains suitable for the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). For Stadler, this is the first contract for train retrofitting with its own Guardia.
As part of the contract, the project also includes the homologation of Guardia solution for the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
The installation of Guardia into the trains will be carried out at Stadler’s service center in the Netherlands.
“With this agreement, Arriva Nederland underlines the importance of values like safety and innovation. It is great to be a leader in this national and European program as a provider of regional public transport,” said Anne Hettinga, Chairman of the Executive Board of Arriva Nederland.
The ETCS Guardia involves the installation of both hardware and software on the train. It allows the train driver to visualise the train’s position, speed and additional data, with all these details transmitted to the control centre. Data such as track warrants can be obtained at the same time.
The ETCS automatic train protection system Guardia was developed by Stadler and the joint venture of AngelStarand Mermec.
Stadler decided to enter signalling market to reduce its dependency on systems’ suppliers. The new signalling system entered tests and approval process in Switzerland in 2018.
The first homologation of Guardia ETCS solution was obtained in June 2020 in Poland for the Flirt trains operated by Koleje Mazowieckie in Mazovia Region.
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