Notes

What Veolia does, or rather, doesn’t do, with it’s Plan Vs goes beyond wanting to save money, it absolutely looks as if the trains aren’t meant to run (for Veolia, anyway) much longer. And this appears to be the replacement: A brand new Stadler GTW 2/6.

The GTW 2/6 should not be confused with the Stadler FLIRT (more or less it’s successor), which has, in this case, the same cab module. In theory, the GTW is an entire family of trains of varying lengths, but the 2/6 version, with two of six axles powered, is the most frequent one. The driven axles sit in the power module, the window-less brick in the middle of the train (by the way, passengers can actually walk freely through it). The end cars have a truck each at the end, while the other end is suspended at the power unit in a method that is rather similar to many modern streetcars. This means that low-floor is no problem at all and the noise also doesn’t come into the passenger compartment as much.

Describing the GTW 2/6 as versatile does not exactly meet the point. The train can be bought with normal or any number of narrow gauges and even with a cog wheel drive. You can get it with both diesel or many electric power units, and I guess if you asked them nicely enough, Stadler would build you a steam-powered one as well. In addition, there are millions of different head styles to chose from. This trains is also one that managed to be sold in the USA, where it operates as an LRV on New Jersey Transit’s River Line.