Pendolino (from
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
pendolo "pendulum", and
-ino, a diminutive suffix) is an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
family of
tilting trainA tilting train has a mechanism that enables increased speed on regular railway tracks. As a train rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about or seated passengers to feel squashed by the outboard armrest due to its...
s used in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
,
SloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north...
,
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
, the
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
,
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
, the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
,
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and shortly in
RomaniaCăile Ferate Române is the official designation of the state railway carrier of Romania. Romania has a railway network of 11,380 km of which 3,971 km are electrified and the total track length is 22,247 km...
,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
and Russian Federation. It was developed and manufactured by
Fiat Ferroviariathumb|300px|[[FS Class E626]] locomotive, a mainstay of Italian railways starting from the 1930s.Fiat Ferroviaria was the rail division of FIAT of Italy...
, which was taken over by
AlstomAlstom is a large French multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2007-'08 Alstom had annual sales of over €16.9 billion, and employed more than 81,500 people in 70 countries. Alstom's...
in 2002.
The idea of a tilting train became popular in the 1960s and 1970s when various rail operators, impressed by the
high-speed railHigh-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions include 200 km/h and faster — depending on whether the track is upgraded or new — by the European Union, and above 90 mph by the United...
services being introduced in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, wondered how they could similarly speed up travel without building a dedicated parallel rail network (as those two countries were doing). By tilting, the train could round curves designed for slower trains at higher speeds without causing undue discomfort to passengers.
Italy
In Italy various possibilities were explored (including one early design for fixed carriages with tilting seats). A number of prototypes were built and tested, including an
automotrice (self-propelled) derived from ALn 668 diesel car and provided with tilting seats. The first working prototype using a tilting carbody was ETR Y 0160, an electrically powered car launched by
FIATthumb|300px|[[FS Class E626]] locomotive, a mainstay of Italian railways starting from the 1930s.Fiat Ferroviaria was the rail division of FIAT of Italy...
in 1969. This was the first to be christened
Pendolino.
It led to the construction of a whole EMU in 1975, the ETR 401, built in two units by FIAT. One was put into public service in 1975 on the Rome-
AnconaAncona is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of central Italy, population 101,909 . Ancona is situated on the Adriatic Sea and is the center of the province of Ancona and the capital of the region....
(later extended to
RiminiRimini is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, near the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
) line, operated by
Italian State RailwaysThe Ferrovie dello Stato , know also with the acronym FS, is the operator of the Italian railway network. A public concern, it is a railway company of Italian state and its capital is held by the Italian state....
. The train had four cars, and was mostly considered a travelling laboratory for the new technology. The second unit was adapted for service to the wide-gauge
RENFERenfe Operadora is the state-owned company which operates freight and passenger trains on the 1668-mm "Iberian gauge" and 1435-mm "European gauge" networks of the Spanish national railway infrastructure company ADIF .-History:The name RENFE is derived from that of the former Spanish National...
Spanish lines.
In 1982 FIAT acquired patents for the tilting bogie used in the ill-fated British project
APTThe Advanced Passenger Train was an experimental tilting High Speed Train developed by British Rail during the 1970s and early 1980s, which did not enter regular service....
. This and other improvements led to the introduction of the more advanced
ETR 450ETR 450 was the first series Italian tilting train .The Pendolino project was started in the 1970s by FIAT Ferroviaria, but also absorbed technology from titlting train experiments from elsewhere, most notably the British Advanced Passenger Trains...
, the first Pendolino to enter regular service in the world. Characterized by an 8-car (later 9-car, with the addition of a restaurant coach) configuration, ETR 450 could run the Rome-Milan line in under four hours, at speeds up to 250 km/h. Passenger numbers increased from 220,000 in 1988 to 2.2 million in 1993.
In 1993 the next generation, the
ETR 460The ETR 460 is a tilting EMU built by FIAT Ferroviaria beginning from 1993, also known as Pendolino.ETR 460 was an improved development of ETR 450, a Pendolino EMU developed in the 1970s, being characterized by improved layout, electrical and electronic systems, and a better comfort. Maximum speed...
, styled by
Giorgetto GiugiaroGiorgetto Giugiaro is an Italian automobile designer responsible equally for a stable of supercars and several of the most popular everyday vehicles driven today...
, began service. Though plagued by technical teething problems, the ETR 460 introduced several innovations, such as more powerful AC asynchronous motors. Further, the pistons actuating the anti-tilting action were placed in the bogie instead of on the carbody sides: this permitted the reorganisation of the vestibules and passenger compartment areas, improving comfort. The bogie-to-body connection is extremely simple and easy to make, with clear advantages for maintenance. For safety and comfort reasons, maximum tilt was reduced to 8° from the 13° of ETR 450.
ETR 460 keeps axle load to an extremely low level (14.5 ton/axle) to allow the train to negotiate curves up to 35% faster than conventional Intercity trains (loco plus coaches). The body, which exploits large
aluminiumAluminium or aluminum is a silvery white and ductile member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al; its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
extrusion technology, has substantial modularity and allows for extremely low axle weight, whilst fully respecting the highest safety standards, and allows the best exploitation of the space with different loading gauges.
ETR 460 was built in only 10 units. Improved versions include
ETR 470ETR 470 is an Italian high-speed tilting Electric Multiple Unit introduced in 1993 and produced in 9 units for the ItaloSwiss firm Cisalpino. They were produced by Fiat Ferroviaria ....
for the Italo-Swiss Cisalpino company, and the
ETR 480The ETR 480 is a tilting Electric Multiple Unit built by FIAT Ferroviaria beginning from 1993, also known as Pendolino. It was developed from the first new-generation Pendolino, the ETR 460...
, used by
TrenitaliaTrenitalia is the primary operator of trains within Italy. Trenitalia is owned by Ferrovie dello Stato, itself owned by the Italian Government. It was created in 2000 following the EU directive on the deregulation of rail transport...
under AC lines such as those in France and Switzerland. A total of 34 EMUs of the ETR 460/470/480 series were built.
FIAT Ferroviaria was sold to the French
AlstomAlstom is a large French multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2007-'08 Alstom had annual sales of over €16.9 billion, and employed more than 81,500 people in 70 countries. Alstom's...
company in 2000. The development of the Pendolino technology continued in the Italian factories of Alstom, and the next generation, the
New PendolinoThe New Pendolino is a class of high-speed trains built by Alstom Ferroviaria for Trenitalia and Cisalpino, known as the ETR 600 and ETR 610, respectively...
, was delivered to Trenitalia and Cisalpino as the ETR 600 and the ETR 610 from 2006.
Spain
Even before the first Pendolino EMU was built in Italy, in 1972, Fiat and
RENFERenfe Operadora is the state-owned company which operates freight and passenger trains on the 1668-mm "Iberian gauge" and 1435-mm "European gauge" networks of the Spanish national railway infrastructure company ADIF .-History:The name RENFE is derived from that of the former Spanish National...
signed an agreement for cooperation in tilting-train development. The first fruit of the cooperation was the equipment of a RENFE Class 432 EMU with the active tilting suspension in September 1972. After successful tests, Spanish trainmaker
CAF* "CAF" is the ISO 3166-1 3-letter country code for the Central African RepublicCAF may also refer to:*Air force organisations** Chief of Air Force , the commander of the Royal Australian Air Force...
and Fiat built a prototype similar to the ETR 401, which was delivered in 1976 as
RENFE Class 443, nicknamed
Platanito (Banana) for its yellow livery. The 4-car train had a commercial top speed of 180 km/h, and achieved a then speed record for Spain of 206 km/h on 6 May 1987. However, the train remained a unique specimen, as
RENFERenfe Operadora is the state-owned company which operates freight and passenger trains on the 1668-mm "Iberian gauge" and 1435-mm "European gauge" networks of the Spanish national railway infrastructure company ADIF .-History:The name RENFE is derived from that of the former Spanish National...
favoured the entirely domestic
TalgoTalgo is a Spanish manufacturer of railway vehicles. It is best known for a design of articulated railway passenger cars in which the wheels are mounted in pairs, but not joined by an axle, and being between rather than underneath the individual coaches...
. After revenue service in 1979-1982, the train was used for charter and test runs.
Two decades later, to speed up services along its Madrid-Valencia conventional line, Renfe ordered 10 Pendolinos in 1996. The trains, based on the
ETR 460The ETR 460 is a tilting EMU built by FIAT Ferroviaria beginning from 1993, also known as Pendolino.ETR 460 was an improved development of ETR 450, a Pendolino EMU developed in the 1970s, being characterized by improved layout, electrical and electronic systems, and a better comfort. Maximum speed...
and
ETR 470ETR 470 is an Italian high-speed tilting Electric Multiple Unit introduced in 1993 and produced in 9 units for the ItaloSwiss firm Cisalpino. They were produced by Fiat Ferroviaria ....
, were delivered by a joint consortium of Fiat Ferroviaria and GEC-Alsthom from 1998 as
RENFE Class 490. The 3-car trains are suited for 220 km/h on RENFE's conventional lines electrified with 3 kV DC. The Class 490 took up the new Madrid-Valencia
AlarisAlaris is the brand name of the regional rail network run by the Spanish national rail company RENFE that connects the major cities of Madrid and Valencia. Alaris services currently use ETR 490 trainsets, as well as S-120 and S-130 units.-History:...
services in 1999. With growing demand, the capacity of the Class 490 was no longer sufficient, and from February 2008, the trains were transferred to the Corredor Mediterráneo line between Valencia and Barcelona.
For medium-distance services along its high-speed lines, RENFE ordered a non-tilting variant of the Pendolino, based on the
ETR 480The ETR 480 is a tilting Electric Multiple Unit built by FIAT Ferroviaria beginning from 1993, also known as Pendolino. It was developed from the first new-generation Pendolino, the ETR 460...
, in 2001. The 20 4-car trains with a service top speed of 250 km/h were built jointly by Alstom and CAF, and delivered as the
RENFE Class 104. RENFE deployed them for the new Avant services along the Madrid-Seville high-speed line from 29 December 2004.
RENFE ordered another 30 non-tilting medium-distance high-speed trains from Alstom/CAF in a follow-on order, which was later reduced to 13 units. However, these trains are based on the
New PendolinoThe New Pendolino is a class of high-speed trains built by Alstom Ferroviaria for Trenitalia and Cisalpino, known as the ETR 600 and ETR 610, respectively...
design. The first train of the new class designated
RENFE Class 114 was presented in autumn 2008.
Germany
- See also ICE T
The DBAG Class 411, Class 415 electric multiple units are a product line of tilting high speed trains, all in service with Deutsche Bahn, commonly known as ICE T.- Development :...
The West German federal railways
DBThe Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...
experimented with tilting technology in the seventies, but abandoned it. Then in 1987, DB commmissioned a study on whether electrification or purchasing diesel tilting trains would be the better option for the
NurembergNuremberg is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and is Franconia's largest city. It is located about 170 kilometres north of Munich, at 49.27° N 11.5° E. The population is...
-Hof line, and decided for the latter. In 1988, DB ordered 10 tilting DMUs, and another 10 in 1990. All 20 trains of the new
DB Class 610 were delivered in 1992. The two-car trains with a top speed of 160 km/h were produced by a consortium of five German companies and Fiat Ferroviaria. Fiat supplied the bogies, the hydraulic tilting suspension, and the other parts of the tilting technology, thus the trains could be called
Pendolino (a Fiat trademarked brand name).
Deutsche BahnDeutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
ordered more regional and express tilting DMUs with other technology (class 611 and
class 612The RegioSwinger is a tilting Diesel Multiple Unit passenger train used for fast regional traffic on unelectrified lines.- Development and Service :...
: ADtranz/Bombardier,
ICE TDThe DBAG Class 605 is a high-speed diesel multiple unit , in service with Deutsche Bahn and DSB, commonly known as the ICE TD.- Development :...
/class 605: Siemens). However, for the 230 km/h electric
ICE T trains ordered in 1994 for service on conventional lines, Pendolino technology was chosen again. Fiat (Alstom) supplied the bogies and tilting technology for the 32 7-car class 411 and 11 5-car class 415 express trains that entered service from 1999. In 2002, DB placed another order for slightly modified class 411 trains, Alstom Ferroviaria was again supplier of bogies and tilt technology when the 28 trains were delivered from 2004 to 2006.
Finland (and Russia)
- See also VR Class Sm3
The Sm3 is a class of high-speed body-tilting tilting trains operated by the VR Group , built by FIAT Ferroviaria . It is a member of the Pendolino train family, its design based on the ETR 460...
The Finnish model, the Sm3, is based on the
ETR 460The ETR 460 is a tilting EMU built by FIAT Ferroviaria beginning from 1993, also known as Pendolino.ETR 460 was an improved development of ETR 450, a Pendolino EMU developed in the 1970s, being characterized by improved layout, electrical and electronic systems, and a better comfort. Maximum speed...
, adapted to the specific requirements of
VRVR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland, and formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995. Its most important function is the operation of freight and passenger rail services...
(formerly the Finnish State Railways) and to the cold climatic conditions. The first two units were made in 1995 by
RautaruukkiRautaruukki is a Finnish company, headquartered in Helsinki, which manufactures and supplies metal-based components and systems for construction and engineering purposes....
-Transtech, a rolling stock company which was part of
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
TalgoTalgo is a Spanish manufacturer of railway vehicles. It is best known for a design of articulated railway passenger cars in which the wheels are mounted in pairs, but not joined by an axle, and being between rather than underneath the individual coaches...
until 2007, but is now back in Finnish ownership as
Transtech OyTranstech Oy is Finland's major domestic manufacturer of railway rolling stock. It specialises in building railway vehicles for extreme climatic conditions, such as those encountered in Finland.-History:...
. Currently there are a total of 18 units operating.
The electrical traction equipment, with continuous power of 4000 kW, includes GTO chopper/inverter and asynchronous motors.
The trains for VR are composed of 6 vehicles: two traction units, each of which consists of two motor coaches with a 4QC/inverter/converter with four traction motors (one for each bogie), plus a trailer coach with high voltage equipment (25 kV and 50 Hz) and traction transformer; and two end coaches with aerodynamic driving cab. One of the trailer coaches (TTC) has a special featured bar section.
The Finnish Pendolinos have received a lot of bad publicity in Finland for their serious reliability issues, mostly caused by technical problems with their tilting system and couplers. The train did not manage to cope with the severe winter conditions. The coupling problems have grown particularly important when the Pendolino network has been extended, requiring rapid on-the-fly coupling of two trains at intersection stations. Because the units often could not be coupled the train units ended up being two separate trains running one after another. This consumes one extra train slot on the heavily used rail sections causing cascading timetable delays. Due to these problems VR ended the practice of coupling Pendolino trains on-the-fly on autumn 2008.
Karelian Trains
On August 28, 2007,
Karelian TrainsOy Karelian Trains Ltd is a joint venture agreed on 23 November 2006 between Russian Railways and VR Group to operate international express passenger rail services between Helsinki, Finland and Saint Petersburg, Russia. Karelian Trains is registered in Helsinki, VR and RZhD both own 50% of the...
, a joint venture between Finnish
VRVR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland, and formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995. Its most important function is the operation of freight and passenger rail services...
and
Russian RailwaysRussian Railways , is the government-owned railway company of Russia. The company is one of the biggest railway companies in the world with 1.2 million employees and a monopoly within Russia...
, ordered four 1520 mm gauge seven-car Pendolinos for use on 220 km/h
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
–
HelsinkiHelsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the southern part of Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, by the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it the most populous municipality in Finland by a wide margin...
services expected to start in 2010. The bogies will be specially constructed to allow for 220 km/h speed both at the Finnish gauge 1524 mm and the Russian gauge 1520 mm. The model will be an improved version of the model in use by VR, with specifications better adapted to winter conditions solving the previous coupling problems. The journey time between Helsinki and Saint Petersburg will be reduced from five and a half hours to three and a half hours at first and later to three hours.
On December 29, 2008, it was announced that the rail link will be named Allegro (
).
Portugal
In Portugal the Pendolino is named
Alfa PendularAlfa Pendular is the name of the pendolino high-speed train of Portuguese state railway company CP. It connects the cities of Braga, Porto, Aveiro, Coimbra, Santarém, Lisbon, Albufeira and Faro, among others. Its top speed is 220 km/h and it's lightweight at only 13.5 ton/axle...
and is operated by the Portuguese state railway company
CPthumb|330px|right|CP suburban trains at São Bento Station in Oporto.CP — Comboios de Portugal, EPE is a state-owned company which operates freight and passenger trains in Portugal...
. It connects the cities of Braga, Porto, Aveiro, Coimbra, Santarém, Lisbon, Albufeira and Faro, among others, and has a top speed of 220 km/h (136.7 mph). The bogies had to be redesigned for operation on Portugal's
broad gaugeBroad gauge railways use a rail gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For a list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...
track, and the trains were assembled by
ADtranzADtranz was a German-Swedish rail rolling stock equipment manufacturer which designed rail cars and engines....
Portugal at the Amadora plant (former SOREFAME).
Main contractor was
Fiat Ferroviariathumb|300px|[[FS Class E626]] locomotive, a mainstay of Italian railways starting from the 1930s.Fiat Ferroviaria was the rail division of FIAT of Italy...
later acquired by
AlstomAlstom is a large French multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2007-'08 Alstom had annual sales of over €16.9 billion, and employed more than 81,500 people in 70 countries. Alstom's...
with two main subcontractors
ADtranzADtranz was a German-Swedish rail rolling stock equipment manufacturer which designed rail cars and engines....
and
SiemensSiemens AG is a German electrical and telecommunications companysiemens may refer to*siemens , the SI unit of electrical conductance, equivalent to 1 ampere/voltSiemens may also refer to:...
that was responsible for the traction and train control.
Ten trains six-carsets where produced between 1998 and 2001, with commercial operation started in early 1999.
Based on the ETR 460 the Portuguese Pendolino differs mainly from its predecessor from the carbody width that takes advantage of the
Iberian gaugeIberian gauge is the name given to the gauge most extensively used by the railways of Spain and Portugal: namely ....
1668 mm.
Slovenia
Slovenian Railways ordered three Pendolino tilting trains for its main lines. The 3-car trains, delivered as SŽ series 310, were derived from the
ETR 460The ETR 460 is a tilting EMU built by FIAT Ferroviaria beginning from 1993, also known as Pendolino.ETR 460 was an improved development of ETR 450, a Pendolino EMU developed in the 1970s, being characterized by improved layout, electrical and electronic systems, and a better comfort. Maximum speed...
. The series 310 can reach a maximum speed of 200 km/h, but in revenue service on the Slovenian railway network, the maximum it reaches is 145 km/h between Ljubljana-Zalog and Ljubljana stations.
Since 24 September 2000, the series 310 runs the InterCitySlovenija (ICS) service, linking the major cities of
SloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north...
in one line: Koper (only in summer),
LjubljanaLjubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is located in the centre of the country, historically part of the Inner Carniola, and is a mid-sized city of some 280,000 inhabitants. Ljubljana is regarded as the cultural, scientific, economic, political and administrative centre of...
,
Zidani MostZidani Most is a town in Slovenia and an important railway junction. It is named after the stone bridge near the town ....
,
CeljeCelje is the third largest city in Slovenia. Exhibiting the typical characteristics of a Central European city, it is the regional center of Lower Styria and the administrative seat of the municipality of the same name - the Urban Municipality of Celje...
and
MariborMaribor is the second largest city in Slovenia, with 93,584 inhabitants as of 2007. Maribor lies on the river Drava at the meeting point of the Pohorje mountain, the Drava Valley, the Drava Plain, and the Kozjak and Slovenske gorice hill ranges...
, with a frequent service that acts as a high-speed shuttle. Until April 2008, once per day the route from Maribor to Ljubljana was extended as international train to
VeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
via
MonfalconeMonfalcone is a town and comune of the province of Gorizia , located on the coast of the Gulf of Trieste....
serving
TriesteTrieste is a city and seaport in north eastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south, east and north of the city...
.
United Kingdom
In 2002
Virgin TrainsVirgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom, which currently provides services from London Euston to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland, and from Birmingham New Street to North West England and Scotland, on the West Coast Main Line...
in the
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
began operating custom-designed Pendolino trains known as the Class 390 on its
West Coast Main LineThe West Coast Main Line is a busy mixed-traffic railway route in the United Kingdom. It provides fast, long-distance Intercity passenger services between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and southern Scotland....
(WCML) franchise.
The 53 9-car trains were constructed by
AlstomAlstom is a large French multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2007-'08 Alstom had annual sales of over €16.9 billion, and employed more than 81,500 people in 70 countries. Alstom's...
and are leased by
Virgin TrainsVirgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom, which currently provides services from London Euston to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland, and from Birmingham New Street to North West England and Scotland, on the West Coast Main Line...
from
Angel TrainsAngel Trains is a rolling stock leasing company created in 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail. It was one of three ROSCOs...
.
Due to the failure of the
WCMLThe West Coast Main Line is a busy mixed-traffic railway route in the United Kingdom. It provides fast, long-distance Intercity passenger services between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and southern Scotland....
upgrade to provide in-cab signalling these units are limited in service to 125 mph (200 km/h) operation rather than their 140 mph (225 km/h) design speed. In 2006,
Virgin TrainsVirgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom, which currently provides services from London Euston to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland, and from Birmingham New Street to North West England and Scotland, on the West Coast Main Line...
announced that over the next three years they will be examining the possibility of running the trains at 135 mph (215 km/h) through the Trent Valley as part of their new WCML Franchise Proposal.
The Class 390 Pendolino are maintained by Alstom (West Coast Traincare) under contract to Virgin Trains until 2012. The main maintenance locations are
WembleyWembley is an area of north-west London, UK, and part of the London Borough of Brent.-Location:Wembley is bounded on the south and east by the River Brent and the A406 North Circular Road, separating it from Neasden, Willesden and Park Royal. To its west and northwest are Sudbury and Harrow...
, Midlands (
Oxley, WolverhamptonOxley is a suburb of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, and a ward of Wolverhampton City Council. Its area code is WV10. It is situated in the north of the city, bordering South Staffordshire and the Bushbury North, Bushbury South and Low Hill, St Peter's and Tettenhall Regis wards...
),
Manchester (Longsight)Longsight Electric TMD is an AC Electric railway locomotive Traction Maintenance Depot situated in Longsight, Manchester, England. The depot code is LG....
and
Glasgow (Polmadie)Polmadie is a district of Glasgow, a city in Scotland. Polmadie is situated south of the River Clyde, and adjacent to the Gorbals....
, as well as
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
(for minor work only) and several "Traincare Points" along the line of route (such as
EustonEuston station, also known as London Euston, is a major railway station to the north of central London in the London Borough of Camden and is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London . It is one of 18 British railway stations managed by Network Rail, and is the southern terminus of the West Coast...
and
CarlisleCarlisle railway station, also known as Carlisle Citadel station, serves the Cumbrian City of Carlisle, and is a major station on the West Coast Main Line, lying 102 miles south of Glasgow Central, and 299 miles north of London Euston...
). Headquarters for West Coast Traincare moved from the former Metro-Cammell factory at
Washwood HeathWashwood Heath is a ward in Birmingham, within the formal district of Hodge Hill, roughly two miles north-east of Birmingham city centre, England...
in
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
upon its closure in November 2005 to Manchester Longsight depot with some functions being based at a new office facility at Oxley depot.
The
DfTIn the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
has announced that 31 of the existing 9-car sets will be lengthened to 11 cars to increase capacity. Four new 11-car sets are also to be built. Angel Trains ordered the vehicles from Alstom in September 2008. Virgin Rail Projects has been selected to introduce the new trains. The longer units will require major infrastructure changes to allow stations and depots to accommodate the 11-car units.
Two decades earlier
British RailBritish Railways , which later traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the British railway system from the nationalisation of the 'Big Four' British railway companies in 1948 until privatisation in stages from 1994 to 1997...
had planned to bring tilting train technology to the same line with the
APTThe Advanced Passenger Train was an experimental tilting High Speed Train developed by British Rail during the 1970s and early 1980s, which did not enter regular service....
project. Technical problems caused by pressure to launch the service early and lack of the political will to provide sufficient funding to overcome them forced the abandonment of this early attempt, although much of the technology was used to design and build Pendolino trains.
On 23 February 2007, a Virgin Trains Pendolino train was derailed near
GrayriggGrayrigg is a small village in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. It lies on undulated and partly mountainous land, northeast of Kendal, on the north side of the West Coast Main Line, and west side of the M6 motorway....
,
CumbriaCumbria is a shire county in the North West of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
. Virgin chairman Sir Richard Branson credited the Pendolino with saving lives in the crash, describing it to
BBC NewsBBC News, formerly BBC News and Current Affairs, is the department within the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the corporation's news-gathering and production of news programmes on BBC television, radio and online....
as being "built like a tank". A report released on 4 September 2007 found that faulty points were the cause of the accident.
Czech Republic
In 2000
FIAT Ferroviariathumb|300px|[[FS Class E626]] locomotive, a mainstay of Italian railways starting from the 1930s.Fiat Ferroviaria was the rail division of FIAT of Italy...
took an order for the construction of seven tilting trains for the Czech Railways
ČDČeské dráhy or Czech Railways is the main railway operator of the Czech Republic and provides passenger service via state owned rail tracks. It is a significant company in an international railway transport and a member of important European and world institutions, e.g...
, in the framework of which, after taking over FIAT Ferroviaria, Alstom provided an improved version of ETR 470. The first set was delivered in 2004 as Pendolino ČD 680. While testing from
BřeclavBřeclav is a town in the South Moravian Region, Czech Republic, approximately 55km southeast of Brno. It is located at the border with Lower Austria on the Dyje River. The nearest large town on Austrian territory is Hohenau an der March...
to
BrnoBrno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, located in the southeast of the country. It was founded in 1243, although the area had been settled since the 5th century. As of August 2009 the population is 404,887...
on November 18, 2004, the Pendolino reached a speed of 237 km/h and created a new
Czech railway speed recordCzech rail records, dates in brackets indicate when the record was reached or when the railway infrastructure was put into operation.First horse-drawn railway
...
.
During the testing period, the train had problems with the Czech signalling system. The problems were said to be solved and the trains entered regular service in December 2005 between
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
and
OstravaOstrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic, however it is the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. It is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava is located at the confluence of the Ostravice,...
. As of late January 2006, all five Czech Pendolino trains that had been put in service suffered from software and functional problems. All problems were fixed.
On December 1, 2007 a Pendolino derailed in Prague. No one was injured but the train was severely damaged.
China
China Railway High-speedChina Railway High-speed is the high-speed rail system operated by China Railways.Hexie Hao is the designation for high-speed trains running on this rail system. At the beginning of the run all the train had been marked "CRH" observably on the central of head and the out side of the wall each...
(CRH) purchased technologies from Alstom to assemble 60 sets of high speed EMU trains, which have been named CRH5 and are based on Pendolino trains used in Finland. The CRH5 are non-tilting trains.
Potential future orders
The State Administration of Railway transport of Ukraine announced its intent to buy 7 Pendolinos for the UEFA Euro 2012 in 2008, but did not have the financing yet.
Cancelled orders
Polish state railways
PKPis the dominant railway operator in Poland.The company was founded when the former state-owned operator was divided into several units based on the requirements laid down by the European Union...
ordered 16 Pendolinos in 1998. However, the order was cancelled in 2000 due to shortage of funds.
Also in 1998, Romanian railways
CFRCăile Ferate Române is the official designation of the state railway carrier of Romania. Romania has a railway network of 11,380 km of which 3,971 km are electrified and the total track length is 22,247 km...
announced its intent to order two Pendolinos by the end of the year, and wanted to sign another agreement about the local production of 19 more units under a license agreement the next year. However, these plans weren't followed up.
In 2002, Slovakian railways ZSSK considered purchasing four Pendolinos, in close cooperation with
ČDČeské dráhy or Czech Railways is the main railway operator of the Czech Republic and provides passenger service via state owned rail tracks. It is a significant company in an international railway transport and a member of important European and world institutions, e.g...
of the Czech Republic. The trains were to run as ZSSK class 650. This project was given up in 2004 for lack of funds.
See also
- ElettroTreno
ETR is a series of Italian high-speed trains.-Tilting EMU trains:*ETR 401*ETR 450*ETR 460*ETR 470*ETR 480*ETR 600 These models are often referred as Pendolino....
- New Pendolino
The New Pendolino is a class of high-speed trains built by Alstom Ferroviaria for Trenitalia and Cisalpino, known as the ETR 600 and ETR 610, respectively...
- Tilting train
A tilting train has a mechanism that enables increased speed on regular railway tracks. As a train rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about or seated passengers to feel squashed by the outboard armrest due to its...
- FIAT Ferroviaria
thumb|300px|[[FS Class E626]] locomotive, a mainstay of Italian railways starting from the 1930s.Fiat Ferroviaria was the rail division of FIAT of Italy...
- Alstom
Alstom is a large French multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2007-'08 Alstom had annual sales of over €16.9 billion, and employed more than 81,500 people in 70 countries. Alstom's...
- Train categories in Europe
Railway companies in Europe assign their trains to different categories or train types depending on their role. Passenger trains may be broadly split into long-distance and local trains; the latter having average journey times of under an hour and a range of less than 50 kilometres. Goods trains...