European Railroad Discussion > Three hours in Munich - The street car part

Yesterday, I had a couple of hours to spare and decided to take the train from my hometown to Munich after lunch. Main goal was to take pictures of the quite new Avenio street cars from Siemens. 

Picture 1: Unit 2808, a four-car Siemens Avenio (called class "T" in Munich) tram on the Maximiliansbrücke below the Bavarian parliament. The operator, the city of Munich has right now 8 units on their roster, which have been purchased after severe problems with the class "S" cars (Stadler Variobahn)

Picture 2: Unit 2312, a five-car Stadler Variobahn (called class "S" in Munich) tram running downtown on the Maximiliansstrasse. After having been put out of operation for the second time early this year, this class is now back in revenue service after Stadler reworked defective welds in the undercarriage. Munich owns 14 units of this class. The building in the backdrop is the Bavarian State Opera

Picture 3: Unit 2133, a GT6N built between 1994 and 1997 by MAN and Siemens (called class "R 2") in Munich. The 70 units of the class R 2 can bee seen all over the city and until now, 50 units have undergone a major refurbishment. The building in the backdrop is for the "Regierung of Oberbayern" (Government of Upper Bavaria)

Enjoy the pictures!
E111



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/15 01:41 by E111.

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Wonderful photos, E111... thank you! The T-class cars look traditional and futuristic all at once. Very nice!

~ BZ

Impressive set of pictures with a well thought backgrounds, thank you E111!

One question: as Stadler Rail is known for its higher than normal quality combined with innovative solutions, what went wrong here? Was this works of one of their newly acquired plants?

McKey Wrote:
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> One question: as Stadler Rail is known for its
> higher than normal quality combined with
> innovative solutions, what went wrong here? Was
> this works of one of their newly acquired plants?

Hi McKey,

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the units have been produced by Stadler Pankow (Berlin). While I do not want to repeat the uncounted articles in the local press about the Variobahn, here is a short summary: Delivery of the first four units in 2009, with an option for 18 additional units, of which 10 units were ordered soon. The units only got a temporary approuval by the authorities due to missing conformity documentation (but not all missing paperwork was Stadler's fault). In July 2010, the class lost this temporary approuval due to problems with the running gear and gained it again (still temporary) in December 2011. Delivery of the other 10 units took place until spring 2012. End of March 2012, it was announced that 9 units showed ruptures on the wheels (the rubber element between the wheel rim and the wheel disk). With the units have still been under warrenty, Stadler only shipped replacment parts to Munich, as their shops had no capacity for the repair, but the same was true for the shops of the MVG in Munich, so the trams were finally sent back to Stadler and repaired in Summer 2012. According to the local press, there have been times when Stadler even didn't answer the phone if Munich was calling. An indepentent expert stated that the reason for the failure was a design and manufacturing problem at Stadler. Temporary approuval lasted until September 30, 2013, as changes in the software for the doors and the air conditioning were also demanded as necessary. On September 30, 2013, the class gained full approuval. In December 2014, MVG noticed ruptures in the welds of the undercarriage, which occurred due to manufacturing problems at Stadler, and removed seven trains from operation. In January 2015, the authorities demanded the withdrawal of all units from revenue service. After a company specializing in those repaired the welds, they are back in operation since March 2015.

If you now got the impression that this might be a never ending story, you might be right :-)

E111

Somehow it sounds that "Never ending story" is here just right. Complicee would a Franchman say...

Still I hope all troubles are now past and you can enjoy the trams.

Some more questions as I don't know:
1) Were these Stadler Tramsn their first ones?
2) Are the Siemens trams there to stay of just for a lease?
 

McKey Wrote:
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> Still I hope all troubles are now past and you can
> enjoy the trams.
Right know, it seems so!

> Some more questions as I don't know:
> 1) Were these Stadler Tramsn their first ones?
The Variobahn trams were the first ones from Stadler. Otherwise Munich had a lot of different tram classes from different manufacturers like Rathgeber, MAN, Bombardier and  Siemens.

> 2) Are the Siemens trams there to stay of just for
> a lease?
There are here to stay. The order for the 8 units has been placed with Siemens after the option for 8 additional units of the Variobahn has not been drawn by the MVG. And, to be fair to Stadler, it took about one year between the delivery of the Avenio trams and their full approuval for public traffic from the authorities of the District of Upper Bavaria. As usual, the paperwork took longer than anybody anticipated.

E111

 

McKey Wrote:
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> One question: as Stadler Rail is known for its
> higher than normal quality combined with
> innovative solutions, what went wrong here? Was
> this works of one of their newly acquired plants?

Right, Stadler Rail is known for its higher than normal quality, but i can not agree. Since December 2013 Meridian took over the locals between Munich and Salzburg and Kufstein (Tirol) with Stadler- Electrics. They could not start in time because the paperwork for approval was incomplete. But since the trains are reliable. They are very discomfortable. They are running very unquiet, you will rattled through, the seats are hard, the space is to closely. Cheap stuff.

Erwin from Austria



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/15 16:01 by spandfecerwin.

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Well, I suppose all train builders have their "cheap models" too, like this one from Innotrans 2014. Looking very interesting outside, feeling changes to amazement once you go inside. All cheap nondescript materials inside...
 

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Any more tram pics E111?

McKey Wrote:
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> Any more tram pics E111?
Your whish is my command ;-) Here are three more, taken some years ago.

Picture 4: Unit 2214 (class R 3, type GT8N2, built between 1999 and 2001 by AdTranz / Bombardier and Siemens) and unit 2131 (class R 2, class GT6N, built between 1994 and 1997 by MAN and Siemens) are crossing at Munich Main Station on October 21, 2012. All three tramstations (Main Hall, South and North) for Munich Main are outside the main building. Car number 2131 is still featuring the old paint job, while the unit 2214 is already showing the new color, which hasbeen opposed by the public in the beginning quite a lot and discredited as "Milka-Color" (Milka is a quite famous chocolate over here).

Picture 5: One of the few remaining units of the class P 3 in Munich, unit 2021 cab be seen here at the Sendlinger Tor station on March 18, 2013. This class was built between 1967 and 1969 with a total count of 40 units. Most of them have been retired by now and partially sold or donated to other cities (like Timisoara), but a few are kept as backup.

Picture 6: Unit 2145 (class R 2) is crossing an unknown class M unit at Karlsplatz / Stachus North on January 2, 2014.

E111



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/15 08:53 by E111.

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Great pictures with settings and backgounding, thank you E111!