en.Wedoany.com Reported - Stadler's 11 FLIRT-type intercity electric multiple units (EMUs) for Hungarian railway company GYSEV have entered the final assembly phase. After the car bodies were manufactured at Stadler's Szolnok production facility in Hungary, they have been transported to the Siedlce plant in Poland, where final mechanical and electrical assembly is currently underway. The trainsets are scheduled for delivery to Hungary by the end of 2026 to commence type testing. Following regulatory certification, they are expected to be phased into passenger service between 2027 and the summer of 2028.

This procurement marks Hungary's first intercity railway vehicle renewal in 30 years and is regarded as a foundational initiative for modernizing domestic railway infrastructure. According to the current production plan, painted car bodies are continuously manufactured at the Szolnok plant before being shipped to the Siedlce facility for final integration. These five-car, dual-system trainsets have a maximum operating speed of 160 km/h. Once in service, the fleet will operate on GYSEV's Sopron–Budapest and Szombathely–Budapest intercity routes. Thanks to their dual-system electrical configuration, these trains are also capable of cross-border operation within the Austrian railway network.

The passenger cabin layout is optimized for long-distance regional transport, featuring various technical and service characteristics. The interior includes first-class and second-class seating in low-floor, air-conditioned passenger areas; an integrated onboard catering zone equipped with automatic food and beverage vending machines; an adjustable interior structure to accommodate seasonal demand changes, capable of holding up to 18 bicycles during summer operations; USB-C charging ports integrated at each seat, local Wi-Fi infrastructure, and tablet and smartphone holders; and a digital passenger information system providing real-time route tracking and telemetry updates throughout the entire trainset.

Testing protocols for the newly assembled railway vehicles are scheduled to begin in August 2026. To optimize certification timelines, validation activities will be conducted in parallel across three different national jurisdictions: Romania, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Following these initial operations, the first completed trainsets will arrive in Hungary by the end of 2026 to commence dedicated domestic testing. All 11 trainsets are expected to achieve full operational status by the summer of 2028.

Stadler's FLIRT (Fast Light Innovative Regional Train) platform employs a modular articulated design using Jacobs bogies between carriages. Unlike standard passenger cars where each body rests on two separate bogies, a Jacobs bogie is positioned directly beneath the articulation connecting two adjacent carriages. This layout reduces the overall weight of the trainset, minimizes track wear, and enhances structural crashworthiness by preventing folding during derailments. The low-floor design aligns the entry threshold with standard platform heights, facilitating passenger boarding and alighting while complying with Technical Specifications for Interoperability regarding Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM). Power electronics, including traction inverters and auxiliary transformers, are installed on the roof or in dedicated power packs behind the driver's cab to maximize cabin space. The dual-system configuration enables the FLIRT EMUs to seamlessly switch between the Hungarian standard overhead catenary electrification system (25 kV AC, 50 Hz) and the Austrian standard electrification grid (15 kV AC, 16.7 Hz). This switching is executed via high-voltage vacuum circuit breakers and a multi-tap main traction transformer, which steps down the high voltage to supply IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) pulse-width modulation rectifiers. Meanwhile, the onboard signaling system must integrate multiple legacy national Automatic Train Protection (ATP) systems with the European Train Control System (ETCS Level 2), ensuring full compatibility with the Hungarian EVM system, the Austrian PZB/Indusi system, and standard ETCS radio block centers, thereby enabling continuous speed monitoring and automatic brake intervention on cross-border lines.