Manchester orders a further 10 new trams

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A Bombardier/Vossloh Kiepe consortium has received an order for 10 new Manchester Metrolink trams after the city’s transport authority exercised an option from an £18 million contract signed in 2007.

This latest order takes the total number of new trams to 104, with 77 already delivered by the consortium.

The new fleet will fully replace the original T68 vehicles which will complete their final runs this year before being decommissioned.

Bombardier has said the first tram of the new batch is expected to be delivered in March 2015.

Peter Cushing, Transport for Greater Manchester’s (TfGM) Metrolink director, said: “The new FLEXITY M5000 vehicles are now a familiar sight across Greater Manchester, with nearly 70,000 journeys a day made on the Metrolink network.

“The vehicles are helping us deliver greater capacity and a much more reliable journey, with lighter, brighter and more spacious interiors giving extra room for passengers. We look forward to completely replacing our tram fleet with this model during 2014.”

The new trams are designed and manufactured by Bombardier in Bautzen, Germany, and Vienna, Austria. However, the bogies are delivered from Bombardier’s Siegen factory and the electrical equipment is provided by Vossloh Kiepe.

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