After the purchase of new trains was temporarily put on hold by disruptions and delivery delays at the manufacturers’ end, now there’s a “plan B”.
Instead of Talent 3 systems manufactured by Bombardier, the South Tyrolean railway network will soon incorporate Alstom-built Coradia Stream trains. Following a successful tender for seven new trains of the Talent 3 type, the contracts had to be amended due to delays affecting delivery throughout Europe and the take-over of Bombardier by Alstom, a French rolling stock manufacturer.
With Alstom, the government of South Tyrol has now found a new solution for the issue and has instructed STA – Strutture Trasporto Alto Adige SpA/Südtiroler Transportstrukturen AG, an in-house company of the government – to proceed with the acquisition by amending the contract. The purchase includes seven multiple-unit Coradia Stream sets with low-floor access specifically designed for local transport: multi-system trains able to run on all three network systems, i.e. on the Venosta/Vinschgau valley line, which will be fully electrified by the time the trains will be launched (25 kV AC), on the Italian network (3 kV DC) and also on the Austrian network (15 kV AC).
The new trains are scheduled to start operating in South Tyrol, more specifically along the Venosta/Vinschgau valley railway line, in about three years’ time. The additional costs are in part financed with funds derived from the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).