The contract, worth 13.7 million euros, stipulates that the vehicles will be delivered to the client in the first half of 2013.
– Our offer was considered the best among several submitted for the tender. Solaris vehicles are already known in Jena, where we delivered fourteen buses between 2009 and 2011. Their quality and reliability were certainly good references for our tram offer. Winning a tender for the supply of trams by a Polish company on the German market is certainly a huge success, but also a huge responsibility. We also hope that this is a promising start for the sale of our trams in European markets – said Solange Olszewska, CEO of Solaris.
Solaris began serial production of rail vehicles in 2010 with the execution of a contract for 45 Solaris Tramino trams for MPK Poznań. Currently, the delivery of the trams is underway and will be completed in May 2012. The order from Jena is the first foreign contract for Solaris trams. The vehicle offered in Jena is a design created specifically for this tender. It will be a bi-directional, 29-meter-long, three-section tram with a completely low floor, adapted for a 1000 mm track gauge. The tram has three bogies: both axles are driven in the middle one, while one axle is driven in the end bogies. The tram is equipped with four air-cooled AC motors, each with a power of 90 kW. The tram for Jena will have four pairs of doors with a width of 1300 mm. The vehicle will provide 46 seats. The vehicle will be fully air-conditioned. The first production works will start in July 2012. Jena is a city with district status in central Germany, in the federal state of Thuringia, on the Saale River. It has approximately 105,000 inhabitants.
Tram transport in Jena has existed since 1901. Today, the city’s transport network includes 5 tram lines. The basic type of vehicle used in Jena is the GT6M-ZR, a 3-section, bi-directional low-floor tram for a 1000 mm track gauge, initially produced by MAN, then by AEG, Adtranz, and most recently by Bombardier.