The first CITYLINK tram-train arrived in Saarbrücken

The first CITYLINK tram-train has been delivered to Saarbahn and was presented to the public on 9 June 2025 in Saarbrücken-Brebach. It is the first of up to 504 vehicles that Stadler will deliver to a consortium of six transport companies from Germany and Austria. As part of this consortium, Saarbahn has ordered 28 tram-trains and holds options for an additional 21 ones.

For the unique procurement project "VDV-TramTrain" for the industry, Stadler is producing these CITYLINKs in Valencia for the entire consortium. All vehicles in the project are based on the same platform and have a length of 37.2 m and a width of 2.65 m. The three-section CITYLINKs come with standardized equipment such as air conditioning for the passenger compartments and driver‘s cabs and flexible, spacious multipurpose areas. Depending on the operator, the units are equipped individually.  Stadler also has a maintenance contract for the entire service life of the vehicles.

Karsten Nagel, Managing Director of Saarbahn: “The arrival of the first vehicle in Saarbrücken is a special milestone: with this vehicle, important parts of the testing and approval program will now be carried out on-site. Stadler is committed to completing the approval process as planned and on time. We look forward to the first new tram-train in passenger service. Starting with the first CITYLINKs that we expect to see in passenger service in the first half of 2026, we will then gradually replace the existing fleet after roughly 30 years of operation by early 2028.”

In September 2024, Stadler presented the first vehicle at InnoTrans. In total, several CITYLINKs are already in use for the complex approval process. This included, for example, operations over six months at VUZ Velim test centre to carry out initial runs and functional tests on the test track. EMC tests were conducted in München. Another vehicle has simultaneously passed tests in the RTA Rail Tec Arsenal climate chamber in Wien.

In Saarbrücken, further tests and runs will be carried out with the now and later delivered vehicles as part of the approval process as a tramtrain according to the railway regulations (EBO) and the tram operation regulations (BoStrab). An additional special feature is the approval of the Saarbahn tram-trains for operations up to Saargemünd, France.

A large part of the static and dynamic approval tests completed with Saarbahn's CITYLINKs will also be valid for the vehicles of the other cooperation partners. This allows not only the construction costs of the individual variants to be divided but also the approval costs among the cooperation partners.

Caption of the group photo (from left to right): Iñigo Parra, CEO of Stadler Division Spain; Karsten Nagel, Managing Director of Saarbahn; Uwe Conradt, Mayor of Saarbrücken; Petra Berg, Saarland's Minister of Mobility; Marc Feistkorn, Karlsruhe Transport Authority, and Michael Irsch, Operations Manager at Saarbahn.