SWISS Federal Railways (SBB) has agreed a SFr 90m ($US 112m) programme to remove unsuccessful roll compensation equipment (wako) from its entire fleet of 62 class Rabe 502 double-deck EMUs.
The operator decided to disable the tilt mechanism on the Bombardier-designed trains, also known as FV-Dosto, in 2022, after a long-running series of complaints over noise and comfort levels dating back to when they entered service in 2018.
Earlier this year a train with modified bogies completed trials at the Velim test centre in the Czech Republic, followed by further testing on the Swiss national network over the summer. As these have proved to deliver a quieter and smoother ride, SBB will roll out the modification to the whole fleet.
After receiving approval from the Federal Office of Transport (FOT), conversion work is expected to start at the end of next year, for completion in the early 2030s. SBB says that it will shortly issue a tender for the required bogie components.
The modification programme, which has been designed by Alstom, is expected to result in total savings of SFr 90m, according to SBB, with additional savings on maintenance costs of SFr 5m a year meaning that the project has a positive business case.
