CZECH railwaymen looking forward to running 200 km/h tilting trains between Berlin, Praha and Wien may have to wait a little longer. CKD Praha announced last month that delivery of the prototype Class 680 Integral had slipped by another nine months to April 15 next year.
When the contract for 10 sets was awarded to the CKD-MSV-Siemens-Fiat consortium in 1995, the prototype was due to roll by the end of 1997, but last year this was postponed to July 1998. Citing problems with the tilt equipment and aluminium bodyshells, CKD also admitted that the price has risen from KC4·1bn to KC4·5bn.
The company still hopes to begin trials before the end of this year and claims that test running under three electrical systems in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic can still be completed in time to have all 10 sets in service by the May 2000 timetable change as planned. o
