Sapporo A1200 low floor tram test runs

[bikkuri bahn]

Some recent views of the low floor tram recently acquired by Sapporo Transport Bureau for their streetcar line in Chuo Ward.  It appears most of the locations are on the portion of the loop closest to Susukino.  This unit will begin revenue service in May.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZu_RtDLX48

Edited April 19, 2013 by bikkuri bahn

[Sacto1985]

I wonder are they built by the same company that recent built a bunch of low-floor trams for "Hiroden"--they look quite similar in many ways.

[bikkuri bahn]

I wonder are they built by the same company that recent built a bunch of low-floor trams for "Hiroden"--they look quite similar in many ways.

No, the Sapporo car is built by Alna Koki (subsidiary of Hankyu), while the Hiroden units are built by Kinki Sharyo with considerable design input by Hiroden's engineering department.

[miyakoji]

No, the Sapporo car is built by Alna Koki (subsidiary of Hankyu), while the Hiroden units are built by Kinki Sharyo with considerable design input by Hiroden's engineering department.

I wonder what people in that department do when new rolling stock isn't in the works. I was surprised to see on the English and Japanese wikipedias that Hiroden has about 1300 employees.

[bill937ca]

I wonder what people in that department do when new rolling stock isn't in the works. I was surprised to see on the English and Japanese wikipedias that Hiroden has about 1300 employees.

 

Hiroden has 271 trams on 9 lines, 489 buses on 16 local, 28 suburban routes and 7 intercity along with real estate.

[bikkuri bahn]

I reckon that Hiroden, like many railways in Japan, has a engineering/maintenance department with considerable work doing maintenance, as bill937ca mentioned.  All that experience maintaining trams has contributed to many hundred (or likely thousands) of cumulative years of knowledge about rolling stock- a priceless resource that continues to be handed from generation to generation of workers and employees,and that knowhow doubtless gets filtered up to the rolling stock builders when building new products.