Yesterday, a new train from the Stadler plant started running in the Minsk metro with passengers. These trains are intended for the third metro line — it will open in summer 2020. But even now you can ride on a modern train on the "Avtozavodskaya" metro line. Journalists from TUT.BY news portal were among the first passengers.
The first "Stadler" took first passengers at the station "Mogilevskaya" at 22.11 p.m.
- The train has already been put into operation, it has already been on the lines many times, but today it is the first time it goes with passengers, - said Andrey Drob, the spokesman of the Minsk metro. – It’s a necessary practice for train drivers, - he added.
On the evening of February 4, the new train ran twice from “Mogilevskaya” to “Kamennaya Gorka” and back. It’s hard to say right now how often it will appear on the line, but obviously not during rush hour.
The train has four carriages. There are already six such trains delivered to the Minsk metro from the factory — they are shorter than the usual trains in the Minsk metro and will be used normally on the third metro line.
There is a loud announcement for all passengers that the train is short.
- Dear passengers! An electric train consisting of four carriages is arriving! Please, be careful!
In the second quarter of 2020, the Stadler plant will deliver 4 more five-carriage trains to the Minsk metro. One of them has already left the factory yesterday.
There are new LED displays above the train doors. A red dot flashes next to the name of the station to which the train is moving at a particular moment. The stations from which you can move to other lines are also marked by the colors of these lines.
At both ends of the new train there are places for people with limited mobility: folding chairs, places for fixing wheelchairs.
New Stadler trains were delivered to the Minsk metro in April 2019. In the summer, they began to run underground. At first, they were loaded with sacks. Since then, the trains have been seen periodically in the metro, but passengers were allowed inside only yesterday, February 4.