PORTUGAL: Metro do Porto has unveiled the design of the 18 Class CT light rail vehicles it has ordered from CRRC Tangshan.
The styling has been developed jointly by the manufacturer and external consultants, supported by a multidisciplinary team from the operator.
‘We wanted to keep our identity and our visual brand, but take a leap forward, a new impulse, which is associated with a new expansion phase’, said Joana Barros, who co-ordinated the design team. ‘We designed the front lights in the form of smile … the vehicles will have a friendly presence in the city.’
Designed for operation at up to 80 km/h, the bidirectional vehicles will be 35 m long with seven doors per side. Each car will have a capacity of 252 passengers including 64 seated.
CRRC Tangshan beat Siemens Mobility and Škoda Transportation to win the €49·6m order signed in January 2020. The procurement is being financed by the Ministry of Environment & Climate Action’s Environment Fund.
Delivery of the first vehicles is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2022 and continue at rate of one per month, taking the Metro do Porto fleet to 72 Bombardier Eurotram vehicles, 30 Bombardier tram-train vehicles and 18 CRRC cars.
