Lausanne Public Transport (TL) was due to receive the first two trainsets of their tram in early summer 2025, to carry out tests and train staff. But Stadler confirms a delay, without specifying the duration. The TL, however, remains confident that the tram will come into service in 2026.
The Swiss company Stadler has accumulated delays due to flooding in Valencia and indicated to RTS on Friday that the delivery of the first two trains for the TL will be affected. “I can confirm to you that we will be late with the delivery of the Lausanne tram, we are in the process of assessing the situation,” specifies spokesperson Marc Meschenmoser. In total, 200,000 hours of work had to be postponed from 2024 to 2025, the equivalent of 10% of the site’s work volume over one year.
The Valencia plant is the largest production site of the Thurgau company Stadler. It was not directly damaged, only a few warehouses were briefly flooded. But of the 3,000 employees at the Spanish site, 600 could not go to their workplace for several days. Much more embarrassing, around thirty subcontractors in the region have stopped delivering parts. “Our suppliers have been hit hard,” explains Marc Meschenmoser. “Their production site was either destroyed or flooded.”
>> Listen again to the La Matinale report on the Valence floods:
Several Swiss city projects undoubtedly delayed
However, it is in Valencia that the trams for Lausanne, Bern, Lugano, Basel and the canton of Aargau are produced. For now, Stadler is assessing the situation for each of its clients. Are we talking about weeks or months of delay? Impossible to confirm for the moment, even if the company recognizes that several projects in Swiss cities risk being disrupted.
“We will communicate as quickly as possible,” declares Marc Meschenmoser. More information should arrive during the month of February. And immediately added: “We are working hard to catch up.” The Valencia factory is running at full capacity again and is now supplied by other subcontractors when necessary.
For their part, the TL are monitoring the situation very closely: “We have employees who are on site today and we will have a management delegation who will go there in February,” confides Christophe Jemelin, director of the development of the offer and major projects. Stadler warned the TL by an initial letter in the week following the floods, then kept them regularly informed.
A first section for 393 million francs
The TL was counting on the delivery of the first two tram trains in June, in order to carry out initial tests. The gauge of the rails requires approval by the Confederation. It will then be necessary to regulate the traffic at the intersections, then train the staff.
-“We decided to maintain the commitment of tram drivers,” adds Christophe Jemelin. For the moment, the transport company is still confident: “We take this news as in any project, there are always hazards. At this stage, we have no indication of postponement of the commissioning of the tram. The scenario of a launch by 2026 is therefore maintained for the moment.
>> Watch the 7:30 p.m. report on the Lausanne tramway site:
After a break in January, the site should resume next week, employing between 100 and 150 workers. “We went from a pipe site to a railway site, we are bringing in the rails, the vegetation is also being laid, the tracks are being concreted in the other sectors,” describes Christophe Jemelin. The TL estimate that traffic, quite disrupted by the work along the future tramway route, should return to normal from this summer.
As a reminder, this first section between Lausanne and Renens costs a total of 393 million francs. An ambitious project, which will redesign the west of the Lausanne metropolitan area.
Subject covered in the 7:30 p.m. on RTS 1
Gaspard Kühn
