In 2005, the Solaris company, known for manufacturing buses, decided to expand the scale of its operations. This is how work began on modern solutions for rail-based urban transport.
– The decision to enter the rail vehicle segment was a logical consequence of our existing development strategy. We manufacture city buses and trolleybuses. Our end customers are public transport companies that also manage tram services. Therefore, in order for our offer to be complete, we decided to enrich our product portfolio with rail vehicles. In 2005, we began research and development work aimed at designing and preparing for serial production the Solaris Tramino – a low-floor tram under the Solaris brand. Last year at the TRAKO trade fair in Gdańsk, and today at the InnoTrans trade fair in Berlin, you can see the result of this work – says Krzysztof Olszewski, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Solaris.
In 2005, the company began research and development work on constructing a low-floor tram. For this purpose, specialists with European experience in building such vehicles were hired. In October 2009, the Solaris Tramino was presented during the MTK TRAKO rail transport trade fair in Gdańsk. The premiere of the five-section, single-space tram with a 100% low floor met with great interest from the industry. Parallel to the design work and preparations for serial production, the Solaris company submitted its offer in a tender for the supply of 40 low-floor trams for the city of Poznań. As many as 10 manufacturers from all over Europe participated in the bidding process. Both price and technical solutions as well as service conditions were evaluated. Ultimately, the ordering party rated the Solaris offer the highest. On November 23, 2009, an agreement was signed between the Municipal Transport Company in Poznań and the Solaris company for the supply of 40 Solaris Tramino trams. A few months later, 5 more trams were ordered as part of an option. The contract assumes that the first vehicles will be delivered to Poznań in June 2011, and deliveries will be completed in March 2012. These are not random dates, as they are closely related to the organization of the European Football Championship in Poland. Poznań will be one of the host cities, hence such significant investments in the renewal of the rolling stock. From December 2009 to August of this year in Poznań, a pre-series unit of the Solaris Tramino underwent a series of homologation tests as well as a series of static and dynamic tests, the goal of which was to optimize the design before starting serial production. Parallel to the tests conducted, among others, in cooperation with the companies LogoMotive GmbH and Voith Engineering Services GmbH, design work on the tram for Poznań and preparations for starting serial production are underway. The production of the Solaris Tramino is completely independent of bus production. The tram body production hall is located in Środa Wielkopolska (35 km south of Poznań). The production of the first steel tram structures for Poznań began in September. In turn, the assembly of components and the interior fitting of the trams will take place in production halls located in Poznań. In connection with the start of tram production and the implementation of the contract for Poznań, by the end of this year, the company will hire nearly 300 people, both in direct and indirect production positions. It is also worth emphasizing that the Tramino units delivered to Poznań will differ in their technical specifications from the test unit presented at the InnoTrans trade fair.