ROMANIA: Two modernised trams for Timișoara were presented to the public on July 8 to coincide with the city’s annual Urban Transport Day.
A consortium of Electroputere VFU Pașcani and Astra Vagoane Călători Arad won a €14·4m contract last year to refurbish up to 30 trams over four years. Work on the first two ex-Bremen Wegmann GT4 vehicles started in June 2014, and they will now undergo test running at night on the standard gauge network.
The two-section unidirectional trams are 18·38 m long, 2 310 mm wide and 3·7 m high. They have 29 seats and capacity for 135 standees at 6/m2. Four sets of 1 200 mm wide double doors include one set with a wheelchair ramp.
As part of the refurbishment, the trams have a new steel body shell, and glass fibre reinforced plastic front and rear ends. Passenger information screens have been installed, along with air-conditioning and three external CCTV cameras.
Two motor bogies each with a 200 kW asynchronous motor fed by two traction inverters supplied by ICPE SAERP give a maximum speed of 70 km/h, but the trams are electronically limited to 50 km/h. A DC traction voltage of between 400 V and 720 V can be used; the Timișoara network is electrified at 600 V.
The AC drives have been designed for regenerative braking, so that energy can be recovered for use by other trams. Hanning & Kahl mechanical brakes are also fitted.
