Voith Engineering Services wins order for “Green Mountain Line” in New Taipei City. First trams scheduled to come into service in 2018. The Taiwan Rolling Stock Company (TRSC) has engaged Voith Engineering Services to develop a tram for the Danhai New Township in New Taipei City (Taiwan).

Over an 8 km route, the “Green Mountain Line” tram will connect the center of New Taipei City with the mountains on the outskirts of Danhai. Later, a “Blue Ocean Line” is set to also connect the coast with the city center. The entire infrastructure to do this has to be established, meaning rails, bridges and depot facilities have to be built, media and energy provision ensured and vehicles supplied. The entire project will be headed by China Steel Corporation, Taiwan‘s largest steel manufacturer, while the Taiwan Rolling Stock Company (TRSC) is responsible for providing the rail vehicles. The 34.5 m long trams are to have a five-section low-floor design and must be capable of travelling in both directions. They should also be standard gauge and capable of travelling through larger intersections and track sections without overhead wires, so they have to be equipped with additional energy storage. TRSC has engaged the experts from Voith Engineering Services to develop these vehicles. “It was important to us to have an experienced and reliable partner like Voith Engineering Services to support us,” says Michael Chung, Vice President, TRSC. For this project the engineering specialists will take over the entire development of the vehicle, from concept and design through the prototyping phase to subsequent commissioning, including analyses of reliability, maintainability and safety. In addition, they will provide support with production planning and factory planning, will design fixtures for welding assemblies and integrate system components. Voith will supervise production of the prototype vehicle and the starting phase of volume production and will provide support with approval and commissioning (with acceptance inspection by a government body). “We are delighted that TRSC has confidence in our expertise and experience and that we have been able to win yet another major project to develop a tram,” says Frank Salzwedel, Executive Vice President Rail at Voith Engineering Services. The first prototype is scheduled for completion by the end of 2016, with volume production envisaged for 2017. The first trams should run on the “Green Mountain Line” in 2018.