Flexity Swift

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Template otherTemplate:Ensure AAA contrast ratio The Bombardier Flexity Swift is a series of urban and inter-urban tram, light rail, and light metro vehicles manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. It is part of the Bombardier Flexity family of rail vehicles, and like the others, Flexity Swift vehicles can be customized to suit the needs and requirements of customers including legacy designs from its acquisition of Adtranz.

Railly News reported that, by the end of 2015, more than 1,000 Flexity Swift vehicles had been sold.

Overview

Vehicles in the Flexity Swift family vary in length, but are all articulated, usually with three sections. In most cases, the centre section is very short, but can be replaced with a longer section in order to increase capacity. The trams can also be coupled together into trains. Nevertheless, they are all bi-directional with cabs at both ends and doors on both sides. An emphasis is placed on speed with units capable of safely reaching speeds of when running on dedicated lines.

Most vehicles typically weigh between , though the ones made for the Minneapolis line are heavier due to stricter crashworthiness requirements in the United States (particularly buff strength) and the vehicles in Rotterdam and Karlsruhe are also heavier due to their use on a full, high-capacity rapid transit network and on mainline railway tracks, respectively.

The Flexity Swift family comes in two distinct versions with a 70% low-floor version to allow access to those in wheelchairs without requiring the construction of high platforms in city streets and a high-floor version with level boarding at raised platforms, generally to retain compatibility with stations built for older trams or trains. While they typically use DC overhead lines for power collection, the Rotterdam vehicles are also equipped with third rail power capability for use on the central sections of the network, while the Karlsruhe tram-trains are compatible with AC electrification which is used on the mainline railways.

Both the low and high-floor models were originally developed for use on the Cologne Stadtbahn in Germany. Other uses of Flexity Swift vehicles include London Tramlink, Manchester Metrolink, the tram networks in Istanbul and Melbourne, Rotterdam Metro, Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, Bonn Stadtbahn, Stockholm light rail lines 12 and 22, and the Metro Light Rail in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. The scrapped Merseytram plan for Liverpool in Merseyside planned to use the same model as London.

The Flexity Swift's closest competitors are the Alstom Citadis family (particularly the RegioCitadis, Citadis Dualis, and Citadis Spirit variants), Siemens's S70/Avanto, SD100/SD160, SD400/SD460 and S200, and Sirio from AnsaldoBreda. Compared to Bombardier's other Flexity vehicles, these vehicles are not designed for streetcar operation with extensive mixed-traffic operations, although they do operate as such on a number of systems such as in London, Manchester, and Melbourne.

Technical specifications

Low-floor versions

City	Operator	Image	Type designation	Manufactured	Number of vehicles	Length	Width	Weight (empty)	Maximum power
Cologne, Germany	KVB	File:KVB4027 BfDeutz.jpg	K4000	1995–1999, 2002	124				4 x
		File:4517Bensberg.jpg	K4500	2004–2007	69
London, England	TfL (Tramlink)	File:Tram 2552 at Mitcham.JPG	CR4000	1998–2000	24
Istanbul, Turkey	Metro İstanbul	File:Bombardier Flexity Istanbul.jpg	A32	2003	55
Karlsruhe, Germany	AVG and VBK	File:Ersteinsatz ET2010 S2.jpg	ET 2010 (Tram-train)	2011–2013	30				4 x
Melbourne, Australia	Yarra Trams	File:Melbourne Tram E-Class 6007.jpg	E	2012–2015	50			62 t (61 long tons; 68 short tons)	6 x
			E2	2016–2021	50
Minneapolis, Minnesota (Metro Light Rail), United States	Metro Transit	File:Hiawatha Line-Government Plaza.jpg	Type 1 LRV	2003–2007	27
Porto, Portugal	Porto Metro	File:Metro Porto Povoa.jpg	Traintram	2010	30
RijnGouweLijn, Netherlands	NS	File:HTM 6101 lightrail.jpg	A32	1999–2003	6(sold to Stockholm June 2010)				4 x
Stockholm, Sweden	SL	File:Bf Sickla udde, ET 411.jpg		1999–2008	31, additionally 6 second hand

High-floor versions

City	Operator	Image	Type designation	Built in	Number of vehicles	Length	Width	Weight (empty)	Maximum power
Bonn, Germany	SWB	File:SWB0372 DTAG.jpg	K5000	2003	15				4 x
Bursa, Turkey	Bursaray	File:Bombardier Flexity Swift (B 2010) in 4-fach-Traktion in Bursa.JPG	U5-2010 Bursa	2010–2011	30
Cologne, Germany	KVB	File:KVB5208 Neußer Straße Gürtel.JPG	K5000	2002–2003	59
			K5200	2010–2011	15
				2020–2021	20
Düsseldorf, Germany	Rheinbahn		HF6	2017–2020	42
Frankfurt am Main, Germany	VgF	File:U5 602 Heddernheim.jpg	U5-25 (Bi-directional)	2008–2017	94				4 x
			U5-50 (Uni-directional)		130				4 x
			U5-KR (non-driving)	2018– ?	22	?		?	?
İzmir, Turkey	İzmir Metro		MD	Ordered 2001	30				4 x
			M		15
Manchester, England	Metrolink	File:M5000 tram Ashton 2.JPG	M5000	2009–2022	147				4 x
Rotterdam, Netherlands	RET	File:RET Metro Type SG2-1 op De Akkers.jpg	MG2/1, SG2/1	1998–2002	81				6 x
		File:Type SG3 met R-net beschikkering.jpg	RSG3, SG3, HSG3	2007–2016	86				8 x

See also

• Flexity Freedom

External links

• Flexity official site
• About London's trams (unofficial)