16 January 2015, 00:00
New look underscores successful collaboration
ABB and the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) are underscoring their close, nearly one hundred years of collaboration with a shared look: Starting today, an RhB train will be arriving at the station in white instead of red. The Rhaetian Railway is giving its train a makeover inside and out to match the ABB branding. The train will be operating exclusively between Landquart and Davos during the World Economic Forum (WEF), and then on all routes of the Graubünden (Grisons) rail network after the convention.
The revamped train, the first to include an additional logo next to that of the Rhaetian Railway, is part of the “Allegra” fleet comprising a total of 15 train sets delivered by Stadler Rail in 2010/2011. ABB supplied the compact converters and transformers as innovative and energy-efficient drive packages developed specifically for the high demands of the Rhaetian Railway. The routes have steep climbs in high alpine climates with extremely low winter temperatures, so the drives need to be extremely powerful and rugged. They must also work with two different systems – with direct current (1 kV) on the Bernina line and with alternating current (11 kV) on the remaining rail network.
“We want to show how important the collaboration with the Rhaetian Railway is to us with the new look,” explains Remo Lütolf, CEO of ABB Switzerland. “We have delivered many innovative products in recent years for the rolling stock, like the auxiliary converters in the Glacier Express and the drive packages in the Stadler train sets. ABB has also supplied key technologies in the field of railway infrastructure such as substations, which ensure that the electrification systems in the RhB railway network are reliable and efficient.” In Landquart and Bever, for example, the electric power is converted from the national grid’s 50 Hz to the 16 Hz that the railway requires.
“ABB is an important long-standing partner for us. We’re pleased that this close collaboration will now be apparent to our passengers as well,” says Hans Amacker, Director of the Rhaetian Railway. BBC, the predecessor company of ABB, provided the first locomotives on the Albula line back in 1913. And just last February 2014, ABB and RhB signed a 20-year service agreement for the drive packages in the Stadler train sets.
ABB has supplied innovative and energy-efficient technologies to the railway industry for many years. The company develops and produces converters for the railway electrification system in Turgi (canton of Aargau) and traction transformers at the site in Geneva. In addition, ABB manufactures and maintains all of the components and subsystems used on the local and national railway networks and high-speed lines. ABB has a huge installed base worldwide and also offers services that cover the entire life cycle (“Life Cycle Services”), including maintenance, upgrades and retrofits.