Nürnberg's G1 In Regular Service

On 19 August 2020 the first three new Type G1 metro trains started regular passenger service on the U1 line in Nürnberg. The VAG Nürnberg CEO, Josef Hasler, presented the new vehicle at Scharfreiterring station together with Nürnberg’s Mayor Marcus König and Gerhard Greiter, CEO of Siemens Mobility North East Europe.

„Our project team has worked with Siemens Mobility for weeks and months towards one goal: the authorisation of the first vehicles. This required a lot, really a lot of proofs and documentation for hardware and software and especially for the interaction of all components, including the existing technology,” says Hasler. „Many thanks to TAB Mittelfranken (the Technical supervisory authority at the government of Middle Franconia) that we have received the approval for passenger operation for the first three vehicles now.“

It is scheduled that VAG will receive a batch of 34 new Type G1 four-car trains by 2023. They will be designated 401 to 404, 405 to 408, ... 533 to 536. The first authorisation was issued by the TAB on 8 August 2020 and concerns the trains No. 3, 4 a 5 (409 - 412, 413 - 416, 417 - 420). VAG currently has eight G1s in Nürnberg: 409 - 412 to 437 - 440, and two more were delivered just on 20 August. The first two units, 401 - 404 and 405 - 408, that were tested in Wegberg-Wildenrath have returned to Wien to bring them on the same stand as the batch.

Before COVID-19 problems, over 440,000 passengers used the metro network every day, around 50 % of them on the U1 line (Langwasser Süd - Fürth Hardhöhe). The new G1s will replace all of the Type DT1 and DT2 metro trains currently in use. The investment costs amount to around 263.2 million EUR, of which 64.1 million EUR are covered by grants, so that the Freistaat Bayern (Free State of Bavaria) contributes around 25 % of the total costs to the financing, higher than originally forecast.