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The pandemic has delayed delivery of the latest model. If you want to find it on the streets of Zurich, you still need a little luck.
The Flexity streetcar opened almost a year ago and now the first is in regular operation.
Photo: Anna-Tia Buss
Starting today, the first passengers can ride a Flexity tram through Zurich. But they need a bit of luck, because the tram with serial number 4001 does not yet have its own place in the timetable. It works without a schedule on different lines, but it still carries passengers. Starting next Monday, it will serve line 11 for about 25 days before, if the tests are successful, it will definitely switch to line 4. Two more Flexity trams have also arrived in Zurich and according to VBZ they will be put into operation the upcoming weeks.
It is a bright place for the VBZ, because the transport companies are losing the streetcars. Every damaged vehicle hurts, for example, the Cobra tram that passed on Monday. was hit by a truck. The shortage of trams already worsened last November to such an extent that the VBZ had to cancel the regular schedule, slim down the network and suspend tram line 17 until further notice (read more here).
“With the step-by-step introduction of the Flexity trams into service, the tense vehicle situation will slowly ease again over the next few months,” writes the VBZ. However, the bridge calendar is still valid. “The VBZ is planning to return to normal business hours as soon as the vehicle situation allows.” According to his own information in the summer of 2021.
Years of delays
The first new Flexity tram should have passed from test to normal operation in the summer. The VBZ justified the fact that nothing came of it with Corona: First, the pandemic would have affected the supply chains of the manufacturer Bombardier and its suppliers. And secondly, the crown protection regulations in Switzerland would have slowed down the commissioning, testing and final acceptance work of the first vehicles (read more here).
The delays in the start-up of the trams much earlier. In reality, the first Flexity streetcars should have passed through the city in 2016. But legal proceedings and disagreements with the ZVV delayed the launch of the project in 2011.
