News

Vulcano DMUs in Sicily

Decem­ber 19, 2015 in Cata­nia, Sicily, wit­nes­sed an offi­cial han­ding over cere­mony of Vul­cano tra­ins manu­fac­tu­red by Newag S.A. for Fer­ro­via Cir­cu­met­nea (FCE) under the exe­cu­tive con­tract signed in Decem­ber 2013. The cere­mony was atten­ded by repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of Newag S.A. led by Pre­si­dent Zbi­gniew Konie­czek  as well as repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of Ita­lian autho­ri­ties headed by Vir­gi­nio Di Giam­bat­ti­sta, Direc­tor Gene­ral  for Local Trans­port of the Ita­lian Mini­stry of Infra­struc­ture and Trans­port, Ales­san­dro Di Gra­ziano, FCE Direc­tor Gene­ral, Davide Farina, Hono­rary Con­sul of the Repu­blic of Poland in Palermo, and nume­rous repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of  muni­ci­pal and regio­nal autho­ri­ties. The han­ding over cere­mony coin­ci­ded  with the cele­bra­tions of 120^th anni­ver­sary of foun­ding FCE.
“I am very happy to be par­ti­ci­pa­ting in this event which is the cul­mi­na­tion of two year coope­ra­tion between Newag and Fer­ro­via Cir­cu­met­nea. The con­tact we signed with FCE mar­ked the begin­ning of Newag’s pre­sence in the Ita­lian mar­ket, which, I hope, will be deve­lo­ping,” said Zbi­gniew Konie­czek, NEWAG’s CEO. “We con­gra­tu­late FCE on its 120^th anni­ver­sary and wish them a lot of suc­cess. I would like to add that the Vul­cano pro­ject was a com­bi­na­tion of over 100 year expe­rience of both the Ita­lian Car­rier and of the Polish manu­fac­tu­rer because Newag is going to cele­brate its 140^th anni­ver­sary in 2016.”

Vir­gi­nio Di Giam­bat­ti­sta empha­si­zed: “These are com­for­ta­ble modern tra­ins. They will be servi­cing the route which was the begin­ning of the histo­ric rail­way line Fer­ro­via Circumetnea.”

Vul­cano DMUs are nar­row gauge die­sel mul­ti­ple units manu­fac­tu­red to ope­rate on the route aro­und Etna vol­cano in Sicily. These are modern, two-unit tra­ins on which spe­cial ‘power­pack’ power-transmission sys­tems were moun­ted toge­ther with a spe­cially desi­gned elec­tric trans­mis­sion. Advan­ced tech­no­lo­gi­cal solu­tions imple­men­ted in the dri­ving and gear sys­tems and in the sup­port of the train body have resul­ted in enhan­ced sound insu­la­tion of the passenger’s com­part­ment in accor­dance with strict requ­ire­ments of the Con­trac­ting Authority.

Vul­cano tra­ins offer enhan­ced tra­vel com­fort to both pas­sen­gers and train dri­vers. They are fully air-conditioned and adap­ted to trans­por­ting pas­sen­gers with redu­ced mobi­lity. One sec­tion is fit­ted with a retention-tank toilet adap­ted to the needs of the disa­bled (in com­pliance with TSI PRM) and the exter­nal door area is fit­ted with spe­cial  mova­ble ramps for whe­el­cha­irs. Driver’s  cabs equ­ip­ped with ergo­no­mic con­trol panels and modern equ­ip­ment have enhan­ced driver’s wor­king conditions.

Vul­cano DMUs guaran­tee the highest safety stan­dards because they were desi­gned in accor­dance with stan­dards con­cer­ning col­li­sion safety and cra­sh­wor­thi­ness  (PIII accor­ding to EN 12663 and EN 15227+A1 C-III). The train inte­rior is made with mate­rials satis­fy­ing fire resi­stance requ­ire­ments of EN45545 stan­dard and the vehicle itself is equ­ip­ped with an active fire detec­tion and fire-fighting system.

Thanks to the con­fi­gu­ra­tion of the pas­sen­ger com­part­ment, the train can be ope­ra­ting on both urban and sub­ur­ban lines. Easily-modified seat lay­out allows for opti­mi­zing pas­sen­ger capa­city. The seating capa­city is 106 inc­lu­ding 7 fold-up seats, and it may be chan­ged depen­ding on the carrier’s needs.

To ensure pas­sen­ger safety, the DMUs have been equ­ip­ped with a moni­to­ring sys­tem.  Other featu­res inc­lude a pas­sen­ger coun­ting sys­tem, the GPS sys­tem, a modern pas­sen­ger infor­ma­tion sys­tem as well as an inter­com ena­bling com­mu­ni­ca­tion between the dri­vers and passengers.

Vul­cano DMUs tra­vel with a speed of 100 km/h and are adju­sted to ope­rate in mul­ti­ple traction.

Under the exe­cu­tive con­tract, signed in Decem­ber 2013, NEWAG S.A. is going to sup­ply four DMUs for a net price of EUR 14 760 000.00. Under the fra­me­work agre­ement, FCE may order addi­tio­nal six tra­ins in the future.

Vul­cano DMUs are not the only Newag-manufactured tra­ins which will be ope­ra­ting in Italy. In Decem­ber this year, NEWAG S.A. signed a fra­me­work agre­ement and an exe­cu­tive con­tract with FERROVIE DEL SUD EST E SERVIZI AUTOMOBILISTICI s.r.l.- “FSE”,  with regi­ste­red office in Bari, Italy, to deli­ver five (with an addi­tio­nal option for 20) three-unit elec­tric mul­ti­ple units (EMUs) from IMPULS II family. These will be the first ever EMUs pro­du­ced by a Polish rail vehicle manu­fac­tu­rer which will be ope­ra­ting in Western Europe.