Helsinki wants 20-40 new trams early next decade

print this

Helsinki City Transport (HKL) calculates that it will need between 20 and 40 new trams in the early part of the next decade to replace ageing vehicles.
      Timo Ketola, head of the Helsinki City Transport Tram Traffic Unit, estimates that the new acquisitions will cost between EUR 80 and 100 million.
     The estimate came soon after the first HKL low-carriage tram left for Germany for repairs. The manufacturer Bombardier is initially taking ten of the trams to its factories in Berlin to repair structural faults that have come up. Repairs on all 40 of the trams are expected to take until late 2007.
     
Although the acquisition of new trams is not expected to happen until early 2010, the City of Helsinki must decide on the investment already this spring.
     "The investment plan covers a period of five years, which means that we are getting to be in a hurry to make decisions", Ketola says.
     The first new trams could be in operation already in 2011, and the whole series by 2014.
     
Helsinki's network of tram lines will be expanding at the same time. A new line - number 9 - will not require new equipment. However, in 2008 the situation will change when the construction of the residential area of Jätkäsaari begins.
     There are plans for a new tram line to Jätkäsaari, on the western edge of the centre of Helsinki.
     Ketola calculates that a tram line to the new residential area would require about 20 new trams, and he feels that a larger order of up to 40 trams could be feasible.
     "Large production series are cheaper in the long run. It is easy to get spare parts for them, and maintenance costs are relatively low."
     New stock is also needed to replace ageing vehicles. Especially the 42 trams acquired in the early 1970s are coming to the end of their life cycle.
     The lives of some older trams can be extended through repairs. All trams of the 1980s will soon get a lower mid-section to help movement of passengers.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Fault-ridden Helsinki trams will be repaired in Germany on a tight schedule (30.9.2005)
  Helsinki City Transport plans purchase of used trams from Germany (7.4.2005)
  Technical problems delay introduction of new tram fleet in Helsinki (21.5.2004)

Helsingin Sanomat