*Significant increase in reliability and ride comfort
The introduction of the new “FV-Dosto” double-deck long-distance train on the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) route network is making significant and measurable progress,Bombadier,the manufacturer has said.
As the manufacturer Bombardier Transportation explained at its Swiss headquarters in Zurich, the reliability of the 25 trains available to the SBB has been increased by a factor of seven in recent weeks, and ride comfort has been substantially improved thanks to newly installed software.
This and the train’s highly energy-efficient drive concept, also led to a significant improvement in punctuality on the routes operated with the FV-Dosto. With the help of software developed and adapted by Bombardier, it has been possible to reduce the previously noticeable vibrations, particularly in the upper decks of trains by up to 75 per cent, thereby substantially increasing ride comfort.
As Stéphane Wettstein, the Swiss Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation, explained, the technical reliability of the FV-Dosto trains used, once again significantly increased to 6,914 km of trouble-free operation in October.
This corresponds to an improvement by a factor of seven over the last ten months. Approximately 34 per cent of service disruptions are caused by operational and passenger-triggered incidents and accordingly affect the overall reliability of operations.
Wettstein put the increase in the technical reliability of the trains down to the effectiveness of the agreed actions and the increasing mileage of the Dosto fleet, which has now covered a total of around 2.27 million kilometres.
He is therefore confident that technical and operational reliability will continue to improve steadily. Since the timetable change in December 2018, around 75 per cent of the technical causes of disruptions have been eliminated.
