[DE] Alstom delivers new Trains for the S-Bahn Cologne

[BavarianTrain]

Alstom announced today that they will supply 90 new Adessia Stream trains for the Cologne S-Bahn.
The trains will be 150 and 170 meters long. The contract also includes the maintenance of the trains for 34 years.
The contract value is 4 billion euros.

Press release with video (english)

I think the moves are okay from the outside. They remind me a bit of the Strasbourg tram.
From the inside, I lack armrests for longer distances. But otherwise, these vehicles, if they drive reliably, are best suited to cope with the high passenger volumes.

 

[duesselmartin]

the trains they replace (Class 423) don't have real armrests either.
The Alstom claim that they are the first S-Bahn trains with toilets is certainly strechting the truth.

 

[gordonthemoron]

the trains they replace (Class 423) don't have real armrests either.
The Alstom claim that they are the first S-Bahn trains with toilets is certainly strechting the truth.

Indeed, Nurnberg S-Bahn have had toilets for years

 

[duesselmartin]

even the Rhine-Ruhr area introduced toilets as far back as 1979

 

[duncombec]

Curiously, the German-language version makes the claim in a slightly different way:

Ein absolutes Novum der neuen S-Bahn-Züge ist ein WC in jedem Endwagen: Keine andere S-Bahn mit hochflurigen Fahrzeugen in Deutschland verfügt bisher über WCs.

Self-translated:

A absolute novelty of the new S-Bahn trains is a toilet in every end carriage: Up to now, no other S-Bahn with high floor vehicles in Germany has toilet availability.

Are the Rhein-Ruhr and Nuremberg trains high floor, or low floor?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Proper S-Bahnen are generally high floor, high platform.

 

[duesselmartin]

The Cologne network is generally high platform, the network east of Duisburg is a mixed bunch. High platforms with low floor trains and vice versa.

As to proper S-Bahn. There is no general definition. Frequency is often seen as a decisive factor. The original real S-Bahn networks also had seperate tracks. Only Hamburg and Berlin has that to a large extend.

 

[dutchflyer]

HH and B also had/ve (built pre-war)3 rail for the current.
The 2nd generation od DB- SBahn networks started all with the old+trusted tipical type of train. Like FVV=FRankfurt, MVV=München and VVStuttgart-all also with a central area tunnel to lead them through (thus also a separate platform area in the HBF=main station). They hardly ever had real delays.
Systems like VRR and VRS (Rhein Ruhr- Rhein-Sieg=Köln) mix with normal lines, also are prone to the nowaday delays-in this case even more cumbersome as the ´integrated transport systems´ have many buslines shortened to feed them and are timed to the S-bahn: there goes your connection!
The KÖln system has lines over 90 mins end to end and going well into quite rural areas.