POLAND: Kraków city council signed a 1·8bn złoty framework contract with Pesa Bydgoszcz for the supply of 90 Twist 3.0 light rail vehicles on April 3.
The agreement has been made based on three lots of tendering, covering:
- 30 bidirectional trams 32 to 34 m long;
- 30 unidirectional trams 32 to 34 m long;
- 30 unidirectional trams 42 to 45 m long.
Firm orders are yet to be called. According to MPK Kraków, its priority is the purchase of the 30 bidirectional trams. These are planned to be used on a future tramway running to the Azory district in the northwest of the city, as well as strengthening other routes. The arrival of these trams would allow MPK Kraków to withdraw all remaining high-floor trams without air-conditioning from service.
For this batch, the operator has already submitted a request for co-financing from the EU’s European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate, Environment 2021-2027 programme.
On March 31, MPK Kraków was allocated 128m złoty of EU grants to support the supply of 18 of the Stadler Tango Kraków Lajkonik II trams, which were delivered in 2023. The operator says it can use this funding as its own contribution to the purchase of the Pesa trams.
The purchase of the remaining 60 vehicles is subject to obtaining financing from other sources, including the EU’s Recovery & Resilience Fund.
‘We are currently doing everything we can to find the funds to exercise the option for the first new trams in the middle of this year’, says Rafał Świerczyński, president of the management board of MPK Kraków. ‘We are also taking many steps aimed at obtaining funds to finance the purchase of the remaining 60 new trams. We want to fully implement the framework agreement, i.e. order all 90 trams.’
Twist 3.0 family
Forming part of Pesa’s Twist 3.0 family, the 100% low floor vehicles are to feature steerable bogies, a lightweight body, as well as energy recovery and storage systems.
‘For us, this is a symbolic moment — exactly 10 years ago we delivered the first Krakowiak trams, then the most modern and longest trams in Poland. Now, after 10 years, Pesa is returning to Kraków and once again I can say the Twists 3.0 that we will deliver will be the most modern vehicles on the market — comfortable, ecological, energy-efficient and quiet’, commented Krzysztof Zdziarski, President of the Management Board of Pesa.
