Glasgow Subway Orders New Trains From Stadler
This article in Global Rail News is entitled New trains for Glasgow Subway. This is said.
Stadler Bussnang AG and Ansaldo STS have won the contract to supply Glasgow Subway with its first new trains for almost 40 years.
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) has today (March 4) released images of the new driverless trains, having awarded the £200 million contract.
Stadler is a Swiss manufacturer of rail vehicles, that is not very well known in the UK. Although, some of their products have been sold to run here.
- Six Variobahn trams run on London Tramlink.
- Thirty-two Class 68 diesel locomotives have been delivered or are on order from Vossloh, which since 2015 has been a subsidiary of Stadler. Six are used by Chiltern Railways.
- Ten Class 88 electro-diesel locomotives have also been ordered from Vossloh.
The trams are very much a standard product, but the locomotives are unusual in that they have been specially built for the UK’s restrictive loading gauge. Wikipedia says this about the company.
Stadler Rail is also focused on niche products and is one of the last European manufacturers of rack railway rolling stock.
Look at the products they make and quite a few are not mainstream.
So as the Glasgow subway is small and to an unusual gauge and size, it is not very surprising that Stadler are involved in producing the new trains.
I don’t think that this will be the last order we’ll see for Stadler products in the UK.
This article from the Railway Gazette is entitled Stadler Rail switches its focus from east to west. This is said.
Swiss rolling stock manufacturer Stadler Rail has announced plans to shift the focus of its growth plans away from the CIS and Middle East markets and towards the UK and the USA.
On June 19 Stadler said the Swiss national bank’s decision to uncouple the franc from the euro in January had brought a sudden 20% increase in the price of its products, which was ‘negatively impacting’ the company. Meanwhile, planned expansion into the CIS market has been ‘halted’ by the weak rouble and sanctions on Russia. Stadler has also ‘fallen well behind expectations’ in the Arab market.
With all the new rail franchises starting in the next few years, I think we’ll see some orders. Certainly with all its expansion plans Tramlink will need a few more trams and if the Class 68/88 locomotives are successful, then other companies might purchase some more.
One very large niche order are new cars for the Docklands Light Railway.
But I also think we’ll see a few Stadler Flirts in the UK, as they seem to be selling well.
The Anonymous Widower 