At a ceremony held in Bussnang on 18 May, the Swiss manufacturer, Stadler Rail AG (www.stadlerrail.com) ‘presented’ the first of 29 Giruno 11-carriage 250kph electric trains to Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (www.sbb.ch).

The ceremony was attended by the president of the Swiss Confederation, Doris Leuthard, and the CEO of SBB, Andreas Meyer. The train is designed for operation in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy. It will also be used on the Basle-Zurich-Milan corridor, which includes the new Gotthard Base Tunnel, which runs through the Alps.

As a result, the Giruno is designed to withstand the huge temperature fluctuations encountered when entering and leaving the tunnel in winter, with special attention being paid to air pressure inside the train, air-conditioning and thermal and acoustic insulation.

The train will now undergo tests at Vienna-based Rail Tec Arsenal (an independent research and testing institute for rail and road vehicles that are subject to extreme climatic conditions) prior to commissioning.

Peter Spuhler, CEO of Stadler Rail Group, said: “Giruno is the first ever mass-produced low-floor high-speed multiple-unit train. It will travel through the longest rail tunnel in the world, and it is the first train ever to meet all of the requirements of the Swiss Disability Discrimination Act.

“The fact that the two project teams at Stadler and SBB were able to develop and manufacture this train in just 30 months is a sensational achievement.”