The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has announced the purchase of five additional Giruno high-speed trains from Stadler Rail, expanding its fleet to meet the growing demand for international travel between Switzerland and Italy.
The Giruno which is based on Stadler’s SMILE model is unique to the market as the first high-speed train in Europe that is designed and built completely barrier-free. In doing so, it complies with the Disability Discrimination Act.
This latest order follows the delivery of the first 29 Giruno trains in 2021 and comes on top of seven additional units ordered in 2022 for service with Germany. The five new trains will be built at Stadler's production plant in Bussnang, Switzerland, and are expected to be delivered by the end of 2025.
"The Giruno represents Stadler's innovative strength and is the result of our long-standing and successful collaboration with SBB. We would like to thank SBB for their trust and look forward to continuing this partnership," says Ansgar Brockmeyer, executive vice president marketing & sales at Stadler.
The Giruno is an 11-car electric system, runs at a top speed of 250 kilometres per hour and in double traction, offers just over 800 seats.
The current Giruno trains which entered service in 2021 currently run services between Basel and Zurich and across the Italian border to Milan, Genoa and Bologna.
The order partly restores faith in the travel possibilities between Switzerland and Italy and the partnership between SBB and Trenitalia after the Gotthard Base Tunnel derailment in August which saw train journeys double and nearly eight kilometres of track and over 20,000 concrete sleepers severely damaged after a freight train derailed on the line.
The Gotthard Base Tunnel was due to reopen at the end of last year but is now scheduled to be open in Autumn 2024, after further works were needed to be undertaken. It will cost an estimated 100 million Swiss francs to complete the repair works.
Photo: Stadler
