Bombardier Double-deck Coach


The Bombardier Double-deck Coach is a bilevel passenger car built by Bombardier Transportation used by various European railways and Israel Railways. The current generation of double-deck coaches can be run at speeds up to 200 km/h. Depending on their configuration, each coach can seat 100 to 150 passengers.

History

The ancestry of these coaches can be traced back to double-deck coaches built by WUMAG at Görlitz for the Lübeck–Büchen–Hamburg railway in 1935. They were push-pull trains with a cab car that could control the steam locomotive at the other end of the train.
After World War II, these coaches were developed further by VEB Waggonbau Görlitz into double-deck trains of two to five cars sharing bogies. Starting in 1974, single coaches were built again that were the direct ancestors of today's double-deck coaches. These trainsets were used by Deutsche Reichsbahn as well as several other railways of the eastern bloc in large numbers. After 1990, VEB Waggonbau Görlitz became part of Deutsche Waggonbau AG which was acquired by Bombardier Transportation in 1998.

First Generation

Build years 1973–1974 and 1976–1991, sold to East Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia.
DB classVmaxcountUIC typenotes
777120DABbuzfcab car
778140DABbuzfcab car

Second Generation

Build years 1992-1993 for Germany (Deutsche Reichsbahn and Deutsche Bundesbahn, later named DB Class 760.
DB classVmaxcountUIC typenotes
760140100DABbuzfcab car

Third Generation

Built between 1994 and 1997 under the DWA brand for Germany's.
DB classVmaxcountUIC typenotes
76114058DABbzfcab car
76214031DABpbzfcab car

Fourth Generation

Built since 1997 and sold under the Bombardier brand to railways in Germany, Denmark, Israel and others.

Fifth Generation

In 2008 Bombardier presented the "Dosto 2010" future family of double-deck trains for the German market. For international sales they were branded as Bombardier TWINDEXX with a "Vario" concept that allows these trains to be built for regional or intercity connections with a design speed of 189 km/h and an operational speed of up to 160 km/h. The high-speed rail versions are branded TWINDEXX Express, designed for 230 km/h. A tilting variant of the Twindexx with an operational speed of up to 200 km/h is developed for the Swiss railway named SBB RABe 502, informally called TWINDEXX Swiss Express. Orders have been placed in the range of a few hundred coaches of the different variants with their initial delivery expected to be during 2015–2017, depending on the variant.