The first painted car body for the new Vienna metro was presented together with the public transport operator Wiener Linien at the Siemens Mobility plant in the Austrian capital.
The trains are the city’s third metro generation supplied by Siemens and are named “X cars.” The first pre-series train is scheduled to be delivered in mid-2020. A total of 34 six-car trainsets are to be built.
Wiener Linien also secured an option for an additional eleven trains. The trains are designed for fully automatic operation as well as operation with a driver. Plans call for them to be used fully automatically on the city’s new Line U5, which is currently under construction, and with drivers on Wiener Linien’s Lines U1 to U4.
The air-conditioned interior of the trains will be accessible end-to-end and have a bright and pleasing design. Spacious and comfortable multifunction areas will offer plenty of space, particularly for passengers with strollers or extra luggage. Retractable gap bridges at each of the 18 doors on both sides of the train will provide barrier-free access for passengers with restricted mobility. The 111-meter train can carry up to 928 passengers.
Siemens Mobility’s innovative digitalized passenger information system “Plus” (FIS+), which was also developed in Vienna and will first be used in the city, will enhance travel comfort and convenience. Information displays located above each door show in real time, before arrival at the next station, the train’s planned platform position and a guide to other connections. With this information, passengers already know before arriving at the station where they must go to get to their destination, and passenger flows on the platform are optimized.
Special lightweight construction elements in the bodies and bogies significantly reduce the X car’s weight and make it particularly light for its class. Electrodynamic braking to a standstill substantially reduces mechanical wear on the brakes and lowers maintenance costs. Low-maintenance, energy-saving LEDs are used for interior and exterior lighting.
Following an EU-wide tender in the fall of 2017, Wiener Linien commissioned Siemens to supply 34 fully automatic metro trains for the city. The contract also includes full maintenance of the trains for 24 years and an option on eleven additional trains.
