ForCity Smart trams for Mainz

In early May 2025, the supervisory board of Mainzer Stadtwerke decided at an extraordinary meeting to purchase 22 new trams. Škoda will deliver them in 2028 - 30, the investment volume exceeds 100 million EUR, and an option for eight more vehicles has been awarded. The order is largely financed by Mainzer Stadtwerke, in addition, the company will receive grants from the city of Mainz and financial support of 5 million EUR from the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Mobility to support innovative components in the new trams.

The trams will be built on the ForCity Smart platform. They will be bidirectional, for a 1,000 mm track gauge, with rotating bogies and a length of 43.5 m. Interesting features include panoramic windows. The new vehicles will play an important role in the development of public transport in the city and will replace the 22 current trams: six high-floor Type M8C trams (DÜWAG, 1984), which are therefore more than 40 years old, and 16 low-floor Type GT6M-ZR trams (Adtranz, 1996). Each ForCity Smart  can accommodate 258 passengers, 96 of them seated. For comparison: M8C trams have space for 139 passengers and GT6M-ZR trams for 143 passengers.

Jan Christoph Harder, President Region West & North Škoda Group, said: “Mainz is a city with a rich tram tradition, and it is great to see how this heritage is combined with modern vehicles. This order is an important step for us, as it means that our trams will be operating in the 11th German city. This contract also confirms our position as the leading supplier of trams for narrow-gauge lines in Germany.”

Nine transport companies that provide tram services in eleven German cities have ordered a total of 242 trams from Škoda Group: Mannheim, Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen, Frankfurt an der Oder, Cottbus, Brandenburg an der Havel, Bonn, Chemnitz, Schöneiche, Kassel, Mainz.