Stadler has chosen TE Connectivity (TE) to provide its SMILE high-speed train fleet with high-voltage electrical roofline equipment.
The SMILE is Stadler’s first high-speed electric multiple unit (EMU) platform and reinforces TE’s place as the global market leader in roofline cable solutions for high-speed trains.
TE is supplying roofline cable assemblies and transformer down-leads that will form part of the current collectors on the roof of the SMILE trains that will carry current to the traction transformers. TE’s equipment has a 30-year track record on-board high-speed trains, which gave Stadler confidence in its performance.
The first units will enter service at the end of 2019 when Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) starts operating 29 SMILE trainsets, under the name Giruno, through the new Gotthard Base Tunnel that links Basel and Zürich in Switzerland with Milan in Italy.
Wesley Gilbert, TE Connectivity’s head of strategy and business development for rail said: “This latest contract with Stadler highlights TE’s capabilities in electrified railways, which are central to the future of transportation, with green energy powering fast links between cities and states.”
High-voltage electrical transmission is particularly challenging on-board high-speed trains as components must be able to withstand mechanical shock and vibration, rapid air flow and fluctuating environmental conditions on the roof of the train.
TE’s high-voltage engineering team in the UK custom-design and test high-voltage components for each application to ensure that they will perform reliably in the unique climatic and air quality conditions of each railway line.
The contract builds on TE’s success in providing high-voltage roofline equipment for Stadler’s FLIRT 3 EMUs. TE will manufacture the components in Poland and India.