Norwegian state railroads waiting for fast flirts ....
#1
FLIRT (Fast Light Innovative Regional Train) is the acronym the manufacturer, Swiss company Stadler, has chosen for the type of electric motor units Norwegian train operator NSB has bought to upgrade it's pool of commuter and regional trains. NSB will rather unromantically call them Type 74 trains.

The Norwegian trains will be a little faster than standard, though. Standard speed for the FLIRTS is 100 mph (160 kph). The new batch delivered for commuter traffic in Norway in 2012 will upgraded to 125 mph, to allow the airport express trains and other regional trains to move at larger speeds too on the parts of the net shared between the airport express trains and the commuter trains.

The NSB Type 71 airport express trains and type 73 regional trains are built for 130 mph, but the current commuter trains were built for lower speeds. The oldest NSB type 69 electric motor units are built for 80 mph top speed, and the newer type 72 electric motor units are built for 100 mph.

Seems like a sound move. Originally the airport express trains was supposed to run alone on a dedicated higher speed set of tracks between Oslo and Oslo Airport Gardermoen, part of which was a 14 mile double track tunnel between Oslo and Lillestrom, while commuter and regional trains poked along at 80 mph along the old track which went around the hills instead of under them.

Here's looking forward at hitting 125 mph on the commuter trains as well :-)

Grin,
Stein
Reply
#2
Looks like the flirts are getting closer - here is a railfan video of one out on a test drive - the first production set arrived a few weeks ago, and is now going through shakedown trials before being put into traffic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN1u7c8zWao

Smile,
Stein
Reply
#3
As I read your post and watch that clip I am reminded of how far we (the U.S.) are behind in high speed passenger service. Our passenger trains cant even keep up the same schedule as they did in the 1940's in some cases. 130 MPH Eek ! I don't even think that our Acela can hit that speed. Glad to see it in service, and enjoy a trip or two.
 My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew  
Reply
#4
There will be a delay in the introduction of the new Stadler FLIRT (Fast Light Innovative Regional Train) electric motor units, which was scheduled for deployment into traffic at the end of this month.

Today one of the new train sets derailed at speed while on a test run.

[Image: 978x409.jpg]

Four people injured - three from the railroad, including the engineer, one from the manufacturing company Stadler. The train set banged up pretty good - lucky that no one was seriously injured - broken ribs seems to have been the worst.

The national traffic safety commission is heading down there to pull the records from the black box and start examine the track etc.

NSB has announced that they will hold the introduction of the new sets until the traffic safety commisson has delivered their report and any recommendations has been acted upon.

Stein
Reply
#5
YIKES! That looks terrible! Sorry to hear about the accident and hope all recover soon. I hope they can work out the bugs and get the FLIRTS running safely.

Ralph
Reply
#6
It is an original swiss made train and widely used all over Europe. Wiki has some information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadler_FLIRT
Reinhard
Reply
#7
faraway Wrote:It is an original swiss made train and widely used all over Europe. Wiki has some information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadler_FLIRT

Absolutely - it is not a new basic design - there are several hundred of these running in several European countries. Sheer bad luck that the first one ever to be in an accident was in an accident just before the type was put into traffic in Norway. But better to have the derailment with just a small test crew aboard, instead of having a train packed with people derail - it was pretty well torn up (15 seconds of ad first, then video pictures of train, seen from the air):

http://bcove.me/ov3n0d7x

Stein
Reply
#8
Well, looks like the cause for the derailment is fairly obvious - the train derailed at a curve rated for 45 mph, while doing 85 mph (135 kph), according to the data recorder. Only question is why the engineer did not reduce speed when he was warned to slow down to 45 mph 3/4 of a mile before the curve.

Stein
Reply
#9
The accident report concludes that the reason the engineer did not slow down was that the two people in the cab were distracted by paying attention to the extra instrumentation for the test run instead of paying proper attention to what was going on outside the cab. It had been planned that one engineer would drive the train and the other would pay attention to the extra instrumentation, but the one driving also got distracted.

The engineer thus missed the sign about reduced speed ahead, and since the second sign was missing, he did not reduce speed until he saw the curve, by which time it was too late.

The two people who were in the cab has been assigned to non-driving duties.

Since the report concludes that there were no technical problems with the trains, the block on approval has been lifted, and it is expected that the new trains will be formally approved for use by the safety board within the next couple of weeks, and will be put into traffic on the Lillehammer-Skien route in May, about two months delayed.
Reply
#10
Ironic that attention paid to the test equipment led to the mishap! Glad to hear the trains look good to go. Will you be riding one this year?
Ralph
By the way, there is talk of a possible high speed rail line between the Twin Cities and Dultuh in Minnesota.
Reply
#11
Ralph Wrote:Ironic that attention paid to the test equipment led to the mishap! Glad to hear the trains look good to go. Will you be riding one this year?
Ralph
By the way, there is talk of a possible high speed rail line between the Twin Cities and Dultuh in Minnesota.

I'm guessing the route from Minneapolis to Chicago will be done first. At least, it should be. The only problem with that is getting MN and WI to work together!
Corey
Reply
#12
Ralph Wrote:Ironic that attention paid to the test equipment led to the mishap! Glad to hear the trains look good to go. Will you be riding one this year?

No, not likely - it would be out of the way for me. But I will likely see them at Oslo Central, since most lines in southern Norway converge there.

Smile,
Stein
Reply
#13
Today the first NSB type 74 EMU (The FLIRT) was put into regular scheduled service on the 2:11pm departure from Oslo Central Station to Skien in southern Norway. More of the new sets will be introduced into this service over the next weeks.

The first five car set is numbered BMa 74.101 - BPa 74.201 - BCMU 74.301 - BPb 74.401 - BMb 74.501 - i.e. type 74 (regional FLIRT version), with each type of car having it own letter code prefix ("Litra" in Norwegian railway-ese) and number series.

The letter prefixes are:
BMa - Class B (2nd class passenger), Motorized, a end (front end)
BPa - Class B, Pantograph, a end (front end)
BCMU - Class B, special compartment (toilet and conductor's office?), Motorized, No cab (Uten førerrom)
BPb - Class B, Pantograph, b end (rear end)
BMb - Class B (2nd class passenger), Motorized, b end (rear end)

Once all the type 74 FLIRTs have been put into service on regional schedules, the type 75 variant (for fast local commuter traffic) will start delivery.

Smile,
Stein
Reply
#14
secondhandmodeler Wrote:
Ralph Wrote:Ironic that attention paid to the test equipment led to the mishap! Glad to hear the trains look good to go. Will you be riding one this year?
Ralph
By the way, there is talk of a possible high speed rail line between the Twin Cities and Dultuh in Minnesota.

I'm guessing the route from Minneapolis to Chicago will be done first. At least, it should be. The only problem with that is getting MN and WI to work together!

Would the route include Madison..??

I presume the folks in Illinois would also have to be brought onboard...
Gus (LC&P).
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)