The first Stadler tramline arrives in Augsburg

Just before midnight on 3 August the first of 11 Stadler Tramlink low-floor cars arrived at the Stadtwertke Augsburg on two articulated road trucks, having been driven from the Belgian port of Brugge. 

 

After unloading the two parts of the 42m tram were pushed into the workshop, where they will be joined together to form Augsburg 901. Test runs will start in September, but passengers are unlikely to be able to climb aboard until early in 2024. The seven-section low-floor trams will replace the last of the high-floor Stadtbahn-M dating from 1985 and start to replace the ADtranz GT6M built in 1996. The new trams are built in Valencia and shipped from Santander to Brugge. 

 

Delivery has been delayed since July 2022 due to effects of the war in Ukraine on the supply chain, especially electrical components. Each tram can carry 231 passengers (86 seated). 

 

Metre-gauge trams have served Augsburg since 1881 and today the 49.8km five-line system carries about 43.2M passengers annually.