Flexity Swift Explained

Bombardier Flexity Swift
Manufacturer:Bombardier Transportation
Numberbuilt:1000+
Art-Sections:2
Trainlength:See tables
Width:See tables
Weight:See tables
Maxspeed:100km/h[1]
Minimum Curve:25m (82feet)[2]

The Bombardier Flexity Swift is a series of urban and inter-urban tram, light rail and light metro vehicles manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. It is part of the Bombardier Flexity family of rail vehicles, and like the others, Flexity Swift vehicles can be customized to suit the needs and requirements of customers including legacy designs from its acquisition of Adtranz.

Railly News reported that, by the end of 2015, more than 1,000 Flexity Swift vehicles had been sold.

Overview

Vehicles in the Flexity Swift family vary in length, but are all articulated, usually with three sections. In most cases, the centre section is very short, but can be replaced with a longer section in order to increase capacity. The trams can also be coupled together into trains. Nevertheless, they are all bi-directional with cabs at both ends and doors on both sides. An emphasis is placed on speed with units capable of safely reaching speeds of 80km/h when running on dedicated lines.

Most vehicles typically weigh between NaN1NaN1, though the ones made for the Minneapolis line are heavier due to stricter crashworthiness requirements in the United States (particularly buff strength) and the vehicles in Rotterdam and Karlsruhe are also heavier due to their use on a full, high-capacity rapid transit network and on mainline railway tracks, respectively.

The Flexity Swift family comes in two distinct versions with a 70% low-floor version to allow access to those in wheelchairs without requiring the construction of high platforms in city streets and a high-floor version with level boarding at raised platforms, generally to retain compatibility with stations built for older trams or trains. While they typically use DC overhead lines for power collection, the Rotterdam vehicles are also equipped with third rail power capability for use on the central sections of the network, while the Karlsruhe tram-trains are compatible with AC electrification which is used on the mainline railways.

Both the low and high-floor models were originally developed for use on the Cologne Stadtbahn in Germany. Other uses of Flexity Swift vehicles include London Tramlink, Manchester Metrolink,[3] the tram networks in Istanbul and Melbourne, Rotterdam Metro, Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, Bonn Stadtbahn, Stockholm light rail lines 12 and 22, and the Metro Light Rail in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. The scrapped Merseytram plan for Liverpool in Merseyside planned to use the same model as London.

The Flexity Swift's closest competitors are the Alstom Citadis family (particularly the RegioCitadis, Citadis Dualis, and Citadis Spirit variants), Siemens's S70/Avanto, SD100/SD160, SD400/SD460 and S200, and Sirio from AnsaldoBreda. Compared to Bombardier's other Flexity vehicles, these vehicles are not designed for streetcar operation with extensive mixed-traffic operations, although they do operate as such on a number of systems such as in London, Manchester, and Melbourne.

Technical specifications

Low-floor versions

CityOperatorImageType designationManufacturedNumber of
vehicles
LengthWidthWeight (empty)Maximum power
Cologne, Germany KVBK4000 1995–1999, 2002 124 28.4ftinNaNftin2.65frac=8NaNfrac=8 35.5t 4 x 120kW
K4500 2004–2007 69 28.5ftinNaNftin37.4t
London, England TfL(Tramlink)1998–2000 24 30.1ftinNaNftin36.3t
Istanbul, Turkey A32 2003 55 29.7ftinNaNftin39.2t
Karlsruhe, Germany ET 2010 (Tram-train) 2011–2013 30 37ftinNaNftin62.5t 4 x 150kW
Melbourne, Australia 2012–2015 50 33.45ftinNaNftin62 t (61 long tons; 68 short tons)6 x 85kW
2016–2021 50
Minneapolis, Minnesota
(Metro Light Rail), United States
Type 1 LRV 2003–2007 27 28.65ftinNaNftin48.5t
Porto, Portugal Traintram 2010 30 37.07ftinNaNftin
RijnGouweLijn, Netherlands A32 1999–2003 6(sold to Stockholm June 2010) 29.7ftinNaNftin37.5t 4 x 120kW
Stockholm, Sweden 1999–2008 31, additionally 6 second hand

High-floor versions

CityOperatorImageType designationBuilt inNumber of vehiclesLengthWidthWeight (empty)Maximum power
Bonn, Germany K5000 2003 15 28.4abbr=onNaNabbr=on2.65frac=8NaNfrac=8 37.8t 4 x 120kW
Bursa, Turkey U5-2010 Bursa 2010–201130 28abbr=onNaNabbr=on38t
Cologne, Germany K5000 2002–2003 59 28.4abbr=onNaNabbr=on37.8t
K5200 2010–2011 15
2020–2021 20
Düsseldorf, Germany Rheinbahn HF6 2017–2020 42 28abbr=onNaNabbr=on
Frankfurt am Main, Germany U5-25 (Bi-directional)2008–2017 94 25.02abbr=onNaNabbr=on37.2t 4 x 130kW
U5-50 (Uni-directional)130 24.764abbr=onNaNabbr=on36.15t 4 x 130kW
U5-KR (non-driving)2018– ?22???
İzmir, Turkey MD Ordered 2001 30 23.5abbr=onNaNabbr=on32t 4 x 75kW
M 15
Manchester, England 2009–2022 147 28.4abbr=onNaNabbr=on39.7t 4 x 120kW
Rotterdam, Netherlands MG2/1, SG2/11998–2002 81 30.5abbr=onNaNabbr=on2.664abbr=onNaNabbr=on44.2t 6 x 85kW
RSG3, SG3, HSG3 2007–2016 86 42abbr=onNaNabbr=on64.3t 8 x 130kW

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Metro do Porto / Flexity Swift. Metro do Porto. 2024-03-03.
  2. Web site: Bombardier M5000, New Vehicles for Metrolink. Williams. Tony. 25 October 2016. Light Rail Transit Association. 2017-07-28. 22 June 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170622131338/http://lrta.org/Manchester/lrv_m5000.html. dead.
  3. http://www.lrta.org/Manchester/veh_new.html Light Rail Transport Association