Tramrus LLC, the joint venture of Alstom and its partner Transmashholding (TMH), has been awarded a contract by the St Petersburg transport operator in Russia to provide them with a low-floor tram by 1 December 2014.

This is St Petersburg’s first fully low-floor tram. The tram is 25m long with a capacity of over 200 passengers. It offers commuters a high level of comfort with spacious interiors and spaces dedicated to luggage, wheelchairs and prams.

Additional comfort features include air-conditioning, ergonomic seats and reduced noise levels.

Modern engineering solutions such as composite materials, innovative bogies and modular structures will ensure reduced operation and maintenance costs. Equipped with a modern traction system, the new tram’s energy consumption is over 10% lower than current trams.

With its 30-year lifecycle, the tram’s lifespan is far greater than that of existing ones (18 years). It has beenspecially designed to cope with the cold climate, complex ground profile and heavy passenger flows of St Petersburg.

The tram is currently undergoing testing at Tramrus LLC’s OEVRZ [1] plant in St. Petersburg, where Alstom and TMH plan to localize tramway engineering and production.

[1] Oktyabrskiy Elektrovagonoremontnyy Zavod: OEVRZ is the main site for overhaul and modernisation of passenger cars and electric trains in North-West of Russia. It was founded in 1826 and has become part of TMH as of 2005.