InnoTrans 2022 (21)

Stadler's large exhibition also included a member of the new TINA tram family, which is the successor to the Tango family. On display was first representative of the Type ST-15 tram for HEAG mobilo, the transport company providing tram services in the Darmstadt-Dieburg region of Germany.

Stadler won the tender for 14 low-floor trams in January 2020, with an option for a further 30. The value of the contract is approximately 62 million EUR. A year after the contract was awarded, HEAG mobilo ordered a further 11 vehicles from the option.

Stadler in the tender offered its newly developed TINA platform (from the German "Total Integrierter Niederflur-Antrieb", i. e. "Totally Integrated Low-floor Drive"). The key element here is the newly developed and patented bogie, which enable to design the tram with the floor at a very low height - at the level of the entrance door thresholds only 280 mm above the rail top.

Good running characteristics were taken into account and, due to their high design flexibility, the bogies can be adapted for different projects to many variants: they can be both powered and non-powered, with wheelsets or independent wheels, for narrow, standard and broad gauges, pivoting and non-pivoting. The bogies enable the tram to achieve a continuous low floor without steps, however, specifically for HEAG mobile, a small step in the bogie area was created at the customer's request, which, on the other hand, made it possible to eliminate the sloping transition surfaces on the connecting floors.

How Stadler takes care about its new design could also be seen in the very careful masking of the small gap between the bodyshell skirt and RailAdventure's Loco Buggie transport bogies, on which the narrow-gauge tram was standing during the fair. Stadler states that only one bolt (pin) is used for the mechanical connection to the bodyshell, the wheelset can be easily replaced, the brake is conveniently accessible from the sides and there are no hydraulic brake hoses attached to the bogie. The diameter of the wheels is 650 mm when new.

Asynchronous water-cooled traction motors with a power output of 50 kW of extremely small dimensions are used, which were developed by TSA, Wiener Neudorf, also with axle gearboxes (the number of motors and therefore the total power output was not specified by Stadler). The IGBT traction converters are produced directly by Stadler.

HEAG mobile desiganted new tram-cars Type ST-15, which is based on Straßenbahn-Triebwagen (tramway powered car) and the number is a reference to the previous Type ST-14 from Alstom. The Darmstadt TINA has a length of 43,950 mm, a width of 2,400 mm and a height of 3,600 mm above rail top. The three longer sections (first, middle and fifth) each have two pivoting bogies, while the two shorter sections (second and fourth) are suspended between them.

The vehicle with a maximum speed of 70 km/h and a starting acceleration of 1.3 m/s² is operated under 600 V DC from the overhead contact line (however, it can also work at 750 V DC). In addition, the traction equipment has an emergency battery-powered drive with a maximum range of 75 m.

Each section is equipped with one double-leaf 1,300 mm wide door, except the last section where at its end is one more 800 mm wide single-leaf door. The tram offers 97 seats in a wood design, plus three wider seats for parents with children and eight backrests. Seating capacity is 171 at density of 4 persons/m². Other features characterising the TINA trams are the really large, one could say panoramic windows and the wide aisles - the width of the passage between the seats is 520 mm. USB-C charging ports (not USB Type-A connectors) are available on most seats, supporting a basic 5 V/3 A powering mode, i. e. up to 15 W.

The interior is air-conditioned with a heat pump using CO₂ in the circuit, and the lighting is LED. The heat from the drive can be used for heating the interior, but this option has not been applied in the case of the trams for HEAG. The driver is assisted by a driver assistance system that uses cameras, radar and LiDAR to monitor the situation in front of the tram and evaluate the possibility of a collision with the ability to intervene, i. e. to activate the emergency brake. In addition, cameras monitoring the driver's blind spots and traffic sign recognition will contribute to traffic safety. In the TINA model for Darmstadt, the driver can benefit from Stadler’s newly developed UNIBOARD system, which summarises all information visually at a glance and allows intuitive operation.

These trams are manufactured at the Bussnang plant, with the first one currently undergoing trials in Switzerland. It is expected to be delivered to Darmstadt and start testing on the network there in late December 2022 and January 2023, with passenger service starting in summer 2023.

Stadler was also successful with the TINA type in Basel in November 2021, where it will also deliver 25, but seven-section trams to Baselland Transport (BLT) in 2023 - 25. This June, an order from Rostocker Strassenbahn for 28 three-section trams followed, with deliveries starting at the end of 2024 and service starting in 2025. And in August this year, an order came from Halle for the Hallesche Verkehrs AG (HAVAG) for 56 TINAs, divided into 39 three-section and 17 five-section vehicles; here, deliveries are to start in the fourth quarter of 2024 and operations are scheduled to start at the end of 2025.