On 29 August 2022 Kaohsiung City Mass Transit Bureau has awarded a consortium of ST Engineering, Singapore, Stadler, Switzerland, and Siemens Mobility, Germany, to provide turnkey rail services for the new Kaohsiung MRT Yellow Line.
The consortium will develop and build a full new metro line in the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. ST Engineering will be responsible for providing rail electronics solutionsand above-ground train depot design, construction and equipment fit out as well as serve as the overall project management and systems integration lead, while Siemens Mobility will supply the CBTC signalling system. Stadler is to deliver 25 fully automatic operated metro trains from its St. Margrethen site as part of the project.
With a population of 2.72 million, Kaohsiung is Taiwan’s third most populous city and the economic center in the south of the country. After the Red Line and Orange Line were opened in 2008, the new Yellow Line comprises 22.9 km of mostly underground tracks and 22 stations with links to the existing lines, a light-rail system and mainline railway stations, connecting the city’s six key districts, universities and schools. Once completed, it will provide sustainable, save, comfortable, fast and very reliable public transport for more than 40 per cent of the city’s population.
A tramway has also been operating in the metropolis since 2015 and was extended again in April 2021. We reported here:
“The supply contract over 25 medium-capacity 3-car metro-trainsets for the Kaohsiung MRT Yellow Line marks a premiere for Stadler in the Asian metro market segment. We are proud that our high-quality standards and reliability as well as our expertise in tailoring vehicle solutions specifically to customer requirements have been decisive criteria for the selection of Stadler in this international tender. The metro trains will be of the latest state of the art, highly energy efficient due to the specific lightweight aluminum construction and operated driverless and fully automatic (GoA4). Additionally, they will be specially designed for the tropical and subtropical climate in Taiwan with a high humidity of up to 100 percent and extreme temperatures of up to 45 degrees.”, says Dr. Ansgar Brockmeyer, Deputy Group CEO and Executive Vice President Marketing & Sales at Stadler. The design of the trains has not been revealed yet.
For Stadler it is the second major rolling stock contract in Taiwan. In November 2019 TRA (Taiwan Railways Administration) had signed a contract for the supply of 34 six-axle narrow-gauge diesel electric locomotives to be be delivered in 2023.
02.09.2022
