European Railroad Discussion > Innotrans 2012 (17), Bombardier "Francilien" Z50000

One of the highlight of Innotrans 2012 fair was the Z50000 EMU of Bombardier. This vehicle has been named "Francilien" at Île-de-France, Paris Immediate surroundings after the public voting for the citizens. The system itself at Paris seems to be called "Transilien", if my interpretation is correct it might mean "transit lines" in English. So combining Transilien with France might have produced the "Francilien".

Francilien for a time was a step from Alstom EMU monopoly for France, but not from French manufacturing as Bombardier too owns a factory in France. The Z50000 EMU comes in several different length variants and to me it looks like the one at Innotrans must have been the longest one. Among the novelties the interior lighting now is mostly by leds, and you can see the designers have again been playing here with all the colors and graphics on the walls to create an interesting atmosphere.

But let's look at a few pictures before we go forward with the story.

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The plug doors (a norm for most European use) were tried first on this EMU, but changed to "traditional French design". I think the reason must be the passengers keeping doors open when the EMU is preparing to leave, something you often saw earlier people doing in Paris. As for the door types the plug doors are extremely easy to keep open while the slide doors now in use can handle a certain amount of resistance without delaying the EMU too much. For those who have not been in Paris the normal case in crowded areas seems to be that once one EMU is leaving another is pulling in. So delaying the departure would cause a severe chain reaction and congestion for the traffic.

But still the recess for the doors looks so much out of place for otherwise streamlined EMU.

Next, let's take a look at the interior lighting and design for this colorful train.

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Some more detail pics. Look how much cabling there is on the roof!

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And finally some pictures of different Franciliens at Gare du Nord.

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All these modern EMUs, despite attempts at 'styling' lack one basic thing-comfortable seats!

Did you try these?

Not seen on this forum yet, but at least Flirt trains of Stadler have quite comfortable seats, subjectively. Of course the main idea still being the ease of cleaning.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/12 00:27 by McKey.

I believe the term Francilien also applies to the outer ring road surrounding Paris, the A-104.

EDIT. I drove A-104 this morning. As La Route is a feminine noun, so the road is called Francilienne. Le Train is masculine, hence Francilien.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/12 11:30 by Focalplane.

McKey Wrote:
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> Of course the main idea still being
> the ease of cleaning.

I first visited Paris in 1976 and was horrified to find that unlike London Transport the Metro and Parisian buses had plastic seat with a small cloth seat pad. Over here tube trains had fully upholstered seats, with deep horse hair cushions. And even today our modern trains still have upholstered seating, even if it isn't quite as plump as on older stock. Mind you British Rail was capable of some pretty atrocious seats - the slam door 4VEP used discarded park benches.

McKey Wrote:
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> Of course the main idea still being
> the ease of cleaning.

Why does thid conjure up visions of guys with backpack leaf blowers...