AUSTRIA: Following a long approval process, four double-deck electric multiple units supplied by China’s CRRC are to enter passenger service with Westbahn in the coming weeks, the open access operator announced on November 3.
Westbahn agreed to lease four six-car double-deck 200 km/h EMUs from CRRC in December 2019, two months after it ordered 15 Kiss 3 units from Stadler under a contract which the Chinese company had also bid for.
CRRC is to provide the units to Westbahn under a 10-year lease, with the operator having the option to purchase them at any time.
A Westbahn spokesman told Railway Gazette International that there was no ‘concrete date’ for the trains’ entry into service, as the formal approval process had not yet been fully completed. Local media reports had suggested they would be in traffic before the annual December timetable change.
EMU development
The EMUs developed under CRRC’s Project DDEMU2 have two motored vehicles and four trailers and a maximum speed of 200 km/h. They can use 15 kV 16·7 Hz and 25 kV 50 Hz electrification, and are designed to be TSI-compliant.
Westbahn co-CEO Marco Ramsbacher said CRRC offered quality, innovation and a fast delivery time.
The first of the EMUs was unveiled at the CRRC Zhuzhou factory on May 31 2021 and arrived in Europe in summer 2021; the third train arrived in January 2023.
The time taken to obtain approval for use was criticised by Hans Peter Haselsteiner, who is the main shareholder in Westbahn with a 49·9% stake. He added that the European railway industry takes four years to deliver a train.
Managing Director Thomas Posch said Westbahn services are at capacity on some weekdays, and the EMUs would enable it to increase the number of daily services from Wien from 60 to 66, offering a half-hourly service to Salzburg.
The trains are 158 m long, 8 m longer than the Stadler units, and have 536 seats. Westbahn said energy consumption is 10% lower than the Stadler units.
Features include adjustable seats, power outlets at every seat and wi-fi. There are luggage lockers with a NFC locking function as an alternative to a conventional coin-operated system.
Ramsbacher said ‘we are convinced that only competition based on the highest quality can sustainably inspire passengers to travel by train. This is our credo, ensuring that every journey is a noticeably pleasant travel experience. With our fleet expansion, we are creating what Austria needs right now: more capacity with excellent quality, more innovative services on the rails, and above all, attractive delivery times.’
‘Breach of the dam’
The Chamber of Labour, the statutory representative body for employees in Austria, criticised what it said would be one of the first uses of Chinese rolling stock for passenger rail transport in the EU.
Lukas Oberndorfer, head of the Chamber’s Climate, Environment & Transport Department, described it as a ‘breach of the dam’ that ‘endangers a key Austrian industry, future jobs and the crisis resilience of the railway’.
He said ‘unlike other modes of transport, we still have technological leadership in the railway industry in the EU. Endangering this with low-cost providers would be short-sighted in terms of industrial and employment policy.’
He said the use of taxpayers’ money under Austria’s Klimaticket programme should be tied to conditions such as social and ecological criteria and a minimum share of European value creation.
