Vienna’s 50th Flexity in service, and order upped to 132

10 years ago the Austrian capital, Wien (Vienna), with one of Europe’s largest tramway networks, put out a tender for its next generation of trams. At the end of 2014 the order was placed with Bombardier for 119 Flexity low-floor cars (floor height 215mm) in a contract worth EUR 562M (including maintenance); there was an option for 37 more.  

 

The first of the D class, 301, was delivered in 2018 from the Bombardier factory in Wien, and entered service on line 67 from Favoriten depot in December 2018. They are 33.8m long and can carry 211 passengers (62 seated); the design was created specially for the operator Winer Linien.  

 

Subsequent deliveries also went to Rudolfsheim depot and can be seen on line 18, and more recently on line 60. Deliveries are running behind schedule due to COVID and supply chain problems, but should be completed in 2026 (in the meantime the number of contracted trams was increased from 119 to 132). In October 2019 car 306 was wrapped in green vinyl and demonstrated in Graz, Austria, which has subsequently ordered this model to modernise its fleet. 

 

In 2021 Bombardier was acquired by Alstom, so deliveries now carry Alstom badges. Car 345 carries slogan advertising it as the 1000th tram built in Wien for Wien. This refers to the production from the new factory opened by Bombardier-Rotax at Hermann-Gebauer-Strasse in 1991, which was acquired by Alstom with the takeover. The 50th Flexity Wien was delivered in May 2023 and entered service at the end of the month. The new trams are replacing the high-floor E2 trams with their c4 trailers.