GSP Beograd Opens Tender for Purchase of 20 New Trams – First Procurement of Rail Vehicles After 30 CAFs

The Spanish CAF trams are the most recent ones that were purchased for the needs of public transport in Belgrade, which was over ten years ago. Those 30 trams raise the average age of the very old and dilapidated tram subsystem of Belgrade’s public transport company GSP Beograd. After that, no purchase of new trams was mentioned at all for a while, and in the past few years, the city authorities have been announcing and promising the purchase of new trams, but things haven’t gone further than that. That the most recent announcements regarding this topic are slightly more likely to come true could be gleaned from the September session of the City Assembly, where, by a majority decision, GSP borrowed EUR 325 million ahead of the announced procurement of trams. That long-awaited procurement procedure has now finally been opened by the biggest transport company in the city.

As can be seen from the tendering documentation, this pertains to the procurement of 20 low-floor trams, and the bid submission deadline has been set for December 8 this year. What’s interesting is that, even though this is a procurement procedure involving a large sum, the tendering documentation does not mention the estimated value of the procurement. The future agreement itself has a validity period of 48 months, that is, four years, so the delivery of the new trams is expected to be organized in several tours, as has been the case with the previous procedures of the procurement of vehicles for public transport needs.

– The trams will be articulated five-segment vehicles, low-floor for the entire length, equipped with a microprocessor system for the regulation of pulling and braking, an electronic passenger information system, video surveillance, ramps for people with special needs and an air-conditioning device in the driver’s booth and the space for passengers. The new trams should be designed and built for a life cycle of at least 30 years of a safe and reliable exploitation under the conditions described further on in the text. It is considered that trams travel around 70,000 km a year. The supplier is to file documented proof of the ability to meet this requirement – the documentation specifies, among other things.

As added, a vehicle has to be mechanically compatible, in terms of linking, with the existing vehicles: ČKD KT4, DÜVAG with a trailer and CAF, that is, with the trams which operate the public transport lines in Belgrade.

More details about the procurement (in Serbian) can be found HERE.

D. A.

JKP GSP Beograd

Grad Beograd

GSP Beograd

Bozankaya

City of Belgrade

City Assembly of Belgrade

public transport

CAF

DUVAG

ČKD KT4