In January 2025, the first new M34 trams entered service in Gothenburg, Sweden. Superspårvagnen (‘super tram’) is what the locals are already calling the model due to its enormous length of 45 metres. The customer, operator Göteborgs Spårvägar and transport association Västtrafik, ordered a total of 60 of these high-capacity low-floor trams from the Alstom and KIEPE consortium in 2021/22. This generation of light rail vehicles is equipped with drives and electrics from KIEPE and will strengthen the city’s public transport system in terms of attractiveness, performance and sustainability – just like the previous three-part M33 series, 40 of which were delivered to Gothenburg in 2020-2023 (we reported here:
https://www.urban-transport-magazine.com/en/gothenburg-kiepe-electric-and-alstom-hand-over-the-40th-new-m33-light-rail/ ).
The new vehicles will be built at the Alstom plant in Bautzen and equipped with drive and on-board network technology from KIEPE. With a vehicle length of 45 metres, each train has a capacity for 319 passengers and will therefore help to cope with the increasing passenger volume in Gothenburg. The first carriage 601 was delivered to Sweden in August 2024 and the tramcars are now gradually entering regular passenger service. This should be completed by 2026.
As previously for the M33 fleet, KIEPE is supplying a complete drive and electrical system for the M34 from a single source and is providing a KIEPE service team on site 24/7. The operator in Gothenburg attaches great importance to the accessibility and spaciousness of all the trams, and this also applies to driver and travelling comfort. In addition to amenities such as charging options for mobile devices, KIEPE’s electrical equipment also offers the sustainable utilisation of waste engine heat to heat the passenger compartment. The hardware in the form of the traction and on-board power converters could be housed in a shared combi-container on the vehicle roof for each section of the vehicle to save space. The KIEPE fleet management system supports the operator in servicing and maintaining the vehicle fleet with data from the subsystems, which the modular Train Control Management System (TCMS) combines into a functional overall electrical system.
