SWEDISH national operator SJ has awarded CAF, Spain, a contract worth €300m to supply 25 Civity Nordic EMUs, including options to order up to 60 trains.

The new fleet of five-car regional EMUs is due enter service in 2026, and will have a maximum speed of 200km/h.

They will be deployed on the Stockholm - Västerås - Örebro - Skövde - Gothenburg, Stockholm - Uppsala, Linköping - Norrköping - Stockholm - Arlanda - Uppsala - Gävle - Ljusdal and Kalmar - Gothenburg routes.

CAF’s Civity Nordic platform is designed to cope with the extreme conditions of the Swedish climate, including snow and temperatures as low as -40°C.

Three trains operating in multiple will offer a total of 1000 seats, and the new EMUs will be fully accessible, with spaces for bicycles, prams and luggage.

SJ says that much attention as been paid to offering passengers a very high level of comfort, including dynamic interior lighting that can be adapted to the time of day or prevailing weather conditions.

“We put a lot of effort into a comfortable seat that it is comfortable to sit in even for a slightly longer time than an average regional train journey,” says SJ’s vehicle director, Mr Arvid Fredman. “The train will also be equipped with 5G technology and radio-transparent windows that offer fast connection.”

The Civity Nordic fleet will also be equipped with a condition monitoring system that will provide live data on component performance to SJ workshops, enabling condition-based maintenance to be carried out.

“We will thus have trains that will tell us in advance that a component is breaking down and needs to be replaced. It can then be done in a simpler and faster way and the workshop time is reduced, which is good for both SJ and our customers,” says Fredman.

To meet the demand for comfortable and climate-friendly rail travel which it says is “greater than ever,” SJ has embarked to its largest-ever rolling stock procurement and refurbishment programme, representing investment of SKr 19bn ($US 1.8bn).

“Our refurbishment of the X2000 fleet is in full swing and we currently have four fully refurbished trains in service,” says Fredman. SJ has also ordered 25 Zefiro Express trains from Alstom for SKr 7bn to complement the refurbished X2000 fleet.

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