AB: Siemens Canada Awarded Order by City of Calgary to Provide Next Generation of LRT Vehicles

Siemens Canada has officially been awarded the order by the city of Calgary to provide Calgary Transit with 60 new Siemens S200 high floor light rail vehicles.

In addition to expanding the city’s fleet, the new trains will replace a portion of the fleet of current U2 Siemens vehicle provided to the city in the early 1980s, thereby continuing the strong customer relationship between the company and Calgary Transit.

Since 1981 Calgary’s LRT system has become the busiest in North America and second busiest in the world, with an average of more than 300,000 passengers travelling the system daily. Siemens developed the S200 vehicle by incorporating the strengths and lessons learned from the existing Calgary fleet over the past three decades, as well as direct input from Calgary Transit riders and operators, with service-proven technological innovations from other Siemens customers throughout the world.

The result is an innovative new light rail vehicle solution for the city of Calgary featuring var-ious systems that will further aide in reliability, such as: back-up power systems; improved communication and diagnostics systems between the driver and the maintenance shop to re-solve issues promptly; many advancements in modern material technology; and Siemens ser-vice knowledge gained throughout more than three decades of working with Calgary Transit.

The new vehicles are also fully compliant with the city of Calgary’s access design standards, providing barrier-free access at all vehicle doors, making them easily accessible for passengers in wheelchairs as well as those pushing strollers or transporting bicycles or bulky objects.

Siemens designed and tested the technology for the S200 vehicles to perform well in Calgary’s challenging environment. Features such as increased thermal insulation in walls, triple-pane side windows with low solar transmittance and electric floor heating in combination with the vehicle forced air heating and cooling system provides a comfortable passenger environment in all weather conditions. The vehicles are also fitted corrosion protection coatings.

Siemens is confident that the S200 Light Rail Vehicle designed for Calgary Transit will enhance the city’s triple bottom line approach in achieving economic, environmental and social goals. The first S200 vehicle slated to ship in 23 months with the full order to be completed by December 2016.