European Railroad Discussion > Innotrans: Another Red Train From the Most Innovative M

<b>Innotrans: Another Red Train From the Most Innovative Manufacturer</b>

One of the highlights at Innotrans fair were the Stadler EMUs manufacturer had brought there for display.

Stadler is a fast grown Swiss manufacturer that started with rack equipment and has been able to expand aggressively through niche markets the big guys ignored. Now Stadtler Rail is third largest manufacturer in Europe and challenging the even bigger ones. It is also aiming East through multiple channels, one being its new factory in Minsk, Belarus to build standard Flirt and KISS product line equipment. For the moment Russian private operator Aeroexpress KISS trains are under construction in Minsk. For Central European market the manufacturer is finally entering the higher speed segment followed by mostly 160 km/h Flirt and 200 km/h KISS to something called NEAT that runs 249 km/h. First NEAT units will enter traffic on Gotthard new base tunnel in a 3-4 years. The trains will very comfortable and modern. I'm putting my wording this way as nobody seems to doubt Stadler's Ability to deliver what it promises. It always has delivered.


Stadler Rail is also in process of supplying 21 Flirt 3 EMUs for Serbia.

This attractive modern EMU is one of the newest design in the large selection of Stadler Rail vehicles. It also advertises that there would be 1000 Flirt trains (of variants 1, 2 and now 3) sold. Stadler later revealed that the 1000th Flirt will be manufactured to Junakalusto in Finland for use at Helsinki Metropolitan area transportation.

Železnice Srbije (ŽS) Flirt3s in Serbia are tailored to the operators regional use needs. The four modules are low floor with one wide floor at each section. Only going over between the cars you have to climb a few steps as one would expect climbing over the bogie. As modules on Flirt trains are interconnected Jacobs bogie, two modules share a common bogie creating less high floor area and less movable parts to maintain. In some countries less bogies might also mean smaller rail line charges.

ZS Flirt trains have 12 seats at first class and 246 in second. The trains are easily accessible for bikes, baby prams, elderly and disabled. It also has a sizable bathroom that all groups can use. This all is standard for Stadler Rail Flirts that have conquered much of the smaller operators markets in Europe during the last decade.

Starting power is 2600 kw and 200 kN electric motors located at the train ends. Vehicle total length here is 77,1 meters and weight 127 tons due to aluminum construction.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/14 01:58 by McKey.

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The 1000th FLIRT sold! ;-)

Tor on the other side of the Pond

And these people are even selling KISSES! :D

Torisgod Wrote:
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> The 1000th FLIRT sold! ;-)
>
> Tor on the other side of the Pond

McKey Wrote:
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> Innotrans: Another Red Train From the Most
> Innovative Manufacturer
The following lines might sound more negative than I intend, but my experience is not as good as your headline implies. There is no doubt that Stadler is a very innovative and creative company, but the outcome is not always to the pleasure of the traveller. Having used their FLIRT EMUs for the Meridian in Southern Bavaria quite a bit, I can only tell that the seat spacing is far from being comfortable, unless you favor to have your knees between the legs of the person sitting opposite to you, that the door control is a pain, taking sometimes more than a minute to open the doors after the train had stopped, which is by far too much time during the rush-hours, announcements you can't understand because the volume is too low and passenger information monitors showing ridiculous and totally wrong information.


> I'm putting my wording this way as nobody seems to
> doubt Stadler's Ability to deliver what it
> promises. It always has delivered.

Delivered: Yes! On-time: Not always. Taking the example of the Meridian again, the 3-car FLIRTs have been delivered 9 months late: In July 2014 instead of November 2013, causing the railway to rent different EMUs / DMUs from several companies in the meantime. Even Meridian's fleet or 6-car FLIRTs didn't arrive in full numbers at the promised date.

E111

Looks like outcomes differ from one market to another. Looking from North it appears Stadler has far less poor / delayed projects (if any) than other guys.

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But surely the seat spacing and comfort is down to how the operator specified the train not the manufacturer. Living in Switzerland I get to ride Flirts and Kisses all the time (For instance the main S-Bahn from my town to Zürich is operated by Rabe511 Kiss stock on the whole) and I find them quite acceptable. Same with the SOB Flirts that run out of Rapperswil.

As for the late delivery I remember seeing a post on here that said that it was down to slow work by the German regulators.

Isn't it so, that every single train manufacturer has gotten their fair share of this slowness...

helvknight Wrote:
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> As for the late delivery I remember seeing a post
> on here that said that it was down to slow work by
> the German regulators.

Any idea where the problem in German train certification might be?

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McKey Wrote:
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> Isn't it so, that every single train manufacturer
> has gotten their fair share of this slowness...
>
> helvknight Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > As for the late delivery I remember seeing a
> post
> > on here that said that it was down to slow work
> by
> > the German regulators.
>
> Any idea where the problem in German train
> certification might be?

I just remember seeing that there was delay in certification due to it being a new variant, FLIRT 3.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3276121