Citadis

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The Citadis is a low-floor tram built by Alstom in La Rochelle, France, currently in use around the world, in (among others), the Paris region, Lyon, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Orléans, Rotterdam, Dublin (see Luas), Melbourne (see Trams in Melbourne), Katowice, Metropolis Katowice (see Silesian Interurbans) and Gdańsk.

Image:Paris-tramway.jpg

The Citadis family includes both partially low-floor and 100% low-floor trams, in versions with three, five, and seven sections. The 70% low-floor Regio-Citadis variant allows for tram-train operation, in which trams run also on mainline railway tracks; it is used in the German city Kassel, and has just been delivered for the Hague. This train type are having possibillities of duo-powering (diesel/600 VDC, 600 VDC/1,5 kV 16 Hz or 600 VDC/Bioenergy/-diesel). The Citadis family comprises:

Citadis 202 - double articulated 100% low floor (Melbourne)
Citadis 301 - also three section but with 70% low floor (Orléans and Dublin Luas)
Citadis 302 - five carbody sections, 100% low floor (Lyon, Bordeaux, Paris T2, Valenciennes and Rotterdam)
Citadis 402 - seven carbody sections, 100% low floor (Bordeaux, Grenoble, Paris T3)
Citadis 401 - five sections and 70% low floor (Montpellier and Dublin Luas)
Citadis 403 - seven section but with modified end bogie design (Strasbourg)

Like most trams, Citadis vehicles are usually powered by overhead electric wires, but Bordeaux uses ground-level power supply, with which they are powered by a third rail even in the city centre, where the tracks are not always segregated from pedestrians and cars. Safety is ensured by placing the third rail between the other two, and dividing it into eight-metre sections, each of which is only powered while it is completely covered by a tram. There is therefore no risk of a person or animal coming into contact with a live rail. In outer areas, the trams switch to conventional overhead wires. See this LRTA report for more information.

Major competitors to the Citadis include Bombardier Transportation's Flexity family (Outlook, Swift, Classic, and the Link tram-train), and Siemens Combino and Avanto trams. There is also Crotram, new competitor from Croatia, that is still to make some major breakthrough, which is very likely hence its low floor tramways of TMK 2200 series are temporary regarded among the most sophisticated in the world, but still with considerably lower prices than all major producers in the EU.

1 Ordered Citadis
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Ordered Citadis

[edit] France

In France, the Citadis is close to a monopoly market because all new trams in France are low floored and almost all of them are Citadis trams from Alstom.