Russia: As Roman Novikov, CEO of the Ust-Katav Car-building Plant (UKCP), told ROLLINGSTOCK, the new 71-639 low-floor tram with four doors will have a trial run in St. Petersburg.
In March, the company plans to release the 71-638 three-car vehicle with six doors for the metro tram project in Chelyabinsk. Both vehicles are based on the 71-628 single-car tram, of which various modifications are in service in six Russian cities, including St. Petersburg and Chelyabinsk.
UKCP has already published an indicative specification for the 71-639 tram on its website. The vehicle will be 25.8 m long, 2.5 m wide, and 3.7 m high. It will carry up to 187 passengers and have 65 seats. Each of the six asynchronous motors will have a power of 62 kW, and the tram will be able to negotiate curves of 14 m.
In May, the plant will also deliver a five-car tram to St. Petersburg for the trial run. It will be the first such vehicle ever produced in Russia. According to Novikov, the tram will have a different design from the 628, although it will have the same bogies. In November last year, the head of UKCP spoke of building a new assembly plant to ensure serial production of these three- and five-car trams.
UKCP unveiled its first low-floor three-car tram, the 71-633, in 2015. It was an experiment and did not go into production. As part of the development of multi-car low-floor models, the plant manufactured two 71-142 two-car trams, which were delivered to the city of Novokuznetsk in 2020.
