27 state-of-the-art trolleybuses delivered to Lausanne by Vossloh Kiepe and Hess

All 27 new articulated trolleybuses of the type “Swiss Trolley 4” have now been delivered. The last of the modern vehicles with optimised electronic equipment from Vossloh Kiepe were delivered to Transports publics de la région lausannoise (TL), the public transport company in Lausanne, in December 2013.

The new vehicles are based on a contract concluded in December 2011. Five of the 18 m long articulated trolleybuses were handed over to TL already in 2012 as a pre-series. Thereafter, the remaining 22 low-floor buses were delivered successively until December 2013.

Already in 2008 TL had ordered 35 vehicles of the type “Swiss Trolley 3” from Vossloh Kiepe and Hess, which have now proved their worth in passenger operation for several years. These trolleybuses are powered by 320 kW on two driven axles (2 x 160 kW) and thus the world’s most powerful trolleybuses.

Compared with its predecessors the 18 m long new trolleybuses of the type “Swiss Trolley 4“ have some technical innovations: the 120 kW drive motors of the two-axle vehicles are e.g. smaller and thus also lighter. Moreover, lighter and more compact traction inverters (DPU) have been fitted. These additional weight savings make it possible to save further energy with the anyway effective and environment-friendly technology.

Vossloh Kiepe has also developed lighter current collector poles especially for TL so that narrow curves can also be passed at a relatively high speed. Furthermore, the technically optimised generation of the OSA 500 current collector system has been installed, which especially stands out due to its improved dewirement detection system that detects dewirement of the current collectors faster than earlier thanks to additional sensors and intelligent linking of several measured values under the control of a processor.