Ultra Low Floor

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An Ultra Low Floor tram (ULF) in Vienna, Austria (July 2003)

The Ultra Low Floor tram (ULF) is a low-floor tram currently operating only in Vienna, Austria and Oradea, Romania, with the lowest floor-height of any such vehicle in the world.

In contrast to regular low-floor trams, the floor in the interior of ULF is low enough to be at the same height as a sidewalk (about 18 cm or 7 inches above the road surface), which makes access to trams particularly easy for passengers in wheelchairs or with baby carriages. This configuration required a completely new design of the undercarriage, and the axles had to be replaced by a complicated electronic steering of the traction motors. Auxiliary devices are installed largely under the car’s roof.

The ULF technology went into testing in the early 1990s. Since 1998, ULFs have been in use on Vienna's tram network, built by a consortium composed of Siemens and Elin in Vienna. As of mid-2006, 152 cars were in operation, and another 150 cars ordered in mid-2004 are due to enter into service in 2007. The producers also hope for orders from other cities, the prospects for which now seem to be improved in light of the technical problems with Siemens’s Combino tram.

Siemens ULF trams were introduced in Oradea, Romania on 24 April 2008.^[1]