NSB (Norwegian State Railroads) today announced that they have decided to purchase 50 new lightweight 5-car EMU train sets of the model Stadler FLIRT from the Swiss company Stadtler to increase passenger capacity in SE Norway, and take out an option to buy another 100 later.
The contract is worth about 4 billion Norwegian kroner (about 670 million US dollars), and delivery of the new cars are expected to be completed by 2012.
Each new 5 car EMU set will add about 300 seats (or a maximum of about 1000 passengers - sitting and standing - during rush hours). Thus the 50 new train sets will add about passenger capacity corresponding to about 14 000 seats in addition to the approximately 52 000 passenger seat capacity NSB have today (distributed among 183 EMU sets, 32 engines and about 170 passenger cars).
Further investments in double tracking a larger part of the passenger network in SE Norway is also expected, adding to quite a few projects aimed at improving rail net capacity or robustness over these last few years.
This sounds like good news for those of us who commute by train to work every day over here in Norway.
Smile, Stein
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