The Tango is a light rail vehicle and tram made by Stadler Rail. It can be built as either a 100% high-floor or 70% low-floor articulated unit. It is in use in Aarhus, Bochum, Berlin (BVG-Class IK), Basel, Geneva, Kraków (Kraków - Lajkonik), Lyon, Ostrava (NF2) and Sarajevo (NF3).

Characteristics

The cities operating Tango are demanding the following characteristics for their rolling stock: speed (up to 100 km/h or 62 mph), robustness, security and compatibility with the common use of infrastructure, economic (capacity adapted to the traffic and prospects for their development) as well as comfort and aesthetics. In the case of the Appenzell Railways, the light rail needs to deal also with strong gradients in the foothills south of St. Gallen.

Usage

In Lyon, the Tango tram is serving the express line Rhônexpress linking downtown with Saint Exupéry Airport, and its TGV train station, opened in 2010. An order of 32 vehicles was placed by the city of Geneva in December 2009. 20 were ordered by Stuttgarter Strassenbahnen, the first one being completed in September 2012.

Appenzeller Bahnen (AB) has contracted Stadler Rail to deliver seven new Tango for use on the new Appenzell–St. Gallen–Trogen railway starting from 2017. Previously, the western line from St. Gallen to Appenzell was operated by heavy rail with a rack section.

Aarhus Letbane will receive a mix of 12 Stadler Tango (with a top speed of 100 km/h) and 14 Stadler Variobahn, with a total of 26 units.

In 2016, Dopravní podnik Ostrava ordered 30 Stadler Tango NF2 (also known as nOVA) trams with an option for another 10 trams. All 40 trams were delivered between April 2018 and October 2019.

Sarajevo Tramway has received its first Stadler Tango NF3 in December 2023, while 14 more were received by the summer of 2024. An additional 10 new trams were also bought.

The first 50 Stadler Tango Kraków - Lajkonik sets were received by the Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne S.A. w Krakowie[pl] between 2020 and 2021. Between 2022 and 2023, a further 60 trams were delivered. They are internally referred to as the Lajkonik 1s and the Lajkonik 2s respectively.

Gallery

  • Tango in Geneva's public transport livery
  • Tango in Sarajevo

See also

  • Variobahn, a 100% low-floor tram from the same manufacturer

External links

  • Media related to Stadler Tango at Wikimedia Commons