Tramway
Our trams have come a long way from the original horse-pulled cars to the modern CityBahn. For more than 100 years tramways have been cruising through Nuremberg. Always being state-of-the-art? The modern and comfortable CityBahn carries more than 100.000 passengers daily.
Since 1896 the then so called "Electric" has been driving through Nuremberg. During more than 100 years since the introduction of the first electric tramways the cars have been subject to continuous change.
Access at "low level"
Our contemporary carpark consists solely of trams with low-floor access. This means it`s only step of 5 centimeters from the kerb into the vehicle. Especially for older or handicapped passengers and parents with baby carriages this facilitates boarding and deboarding considerably. For this reason we are employing low-floor vehicles of the types GT6N, GT8N (CityBahn) and GTV6 (variobahn) with a continuous low floor and twelve vehicles of the type N8, which were fitted with a low-floor middle-part including comfortable low-floor access in the years 1993 and 94.
More spacious, more comfortable
The introduction of the CityBahn in the year 1995 not only broght technical improvements. Instead of the former drive technology the CityBahn is now equipped with three phase traction. This offers the advantage that part of the kinetic energy is converted to electric current during braking and fed back into the power supply. The energetic recovery rate ranges between 20 and 25 percent.
There also have been definite improvements for passengers by interior changes to the vehicles:
- By creating passages between the different parts of the train a continous passenger compartment resulted.
- Instead of benches the CityBahn is equipped with cloth-covered ergonomically shaped single-seats.
- The available space for baby carriages or wheelchairs has been amplified.
- There are more grab-poles and handholds in the door areas and along the interior of the vehicle.
- Wide window areas provide more light and make the interior of the cars appear brighter and friendlier.
- Furthermore the cars of the CityBahn are equipped with digitally recorded stop announcement and on-board displays of the ongoing route to keep passengers informed.
Further technological advancement of the CityBahn
Long experience with the three-unit GT6N went into improvements of technology and convenience during the acquisition of the four-unit GT8N:
- Driving comfort has been improved by the employment of an innovative longitudinal articulation-angle control.
- Wheelbase within the bogies was elongated from 1.850 to 2.000 millimeters.
- The car body of the GT6N was built from low-corrosion steel, while that of the GT8N is constructed of welded aluminum with glued-in roof- and end-sections of glass-fibre reinforced plastic.
- The additional unit of the four-unit GT8N offers more room compared to the three-unit GT6N. Thus the seat spacing could partially be enlarged.
- There also were improvements for our drivers. So the driver`s cab was equipped with air-conditioning.
Our newest vehicle - the Variotrain
With the delivery of eight Variotrains in 2007 and 08 and gradual withdrawal of the older N8-vehicles, we can accomodate our passengers with a modern fleet of railcars featuring 100% low floor entries for maximum convenience while boarding and de-boarding.
But there is much more to the Variotrain:
- Five-unit low-floor articulated railcar in modular build with corrosion-resistant stell.
- Some parts of the cars are not resting on undercarriages, forming so-called "litter modules" with ample space, especially for wheelchairs and parents with baby carriages.
- Gearless drive system with eight almost noiseless, water-cooled wheel hub motors
- Air-conditioned passenger compartment for comfortable temperatures
- Air-conditioned driver's cab
- Easily readable LED-displays at the front of the cars and flatscreen TFT-displays inside for ongoing route information
- Closed-circuit TV of the passenger compartment
Vecihle maintenance
In 2003 our tramway-maintenance-facility in "Heinrich-Alfes-Straße" went into operation. Maintenance of our 48 tramways is carried out by around 55 employees. In addition they care for two railroad-construction-vehicles and several work-vehicles.
And by the way:
A tramway covers an average of 70.000 kilometres per year.
