Karlsruhe gets EUR 101M from Land to help finance new LRVs

The Land of Baden-Württemberg has announced a grant of EUR 101M to city operator VBK to help finance the purchase of 73 new trams from Stadler. This will cover about 35% of the cost. 

 

VBK has ordered 150 new vehicles for delivery from 2025 of which 73 will be low-floor trams for city routes; the remainder will be dual-voltage tram-trains for the regional operator AVG. all are based on the Stadler Citylink platform. 

 

Transport Minister Hermann said, ‘The transport transition towards climate-friendly mobility requires an attractive public transport offer in the regions municipalities with modern LRVs and trams. This creates an important incentive to switch fro cars to public transport, and is a good investment in climate protection and sustainable mobility’. 

 

VBK Chairman Dr Pischon added, ‘Our numerous trams are the visible flagship of the VBK throughout the city. In order to make our public transport fit for the future we cannot accept the status quo. We need significantly more public transport both here in the city and in the surrounding region in order to meet the urgent challenges of climate change. We are taking a step forward with our new vehicles and are also increasing the capacity of 48 of the 73 vehicles on order to offer even more passengers a comfortable alternative to the private car’.