Cities from Gothenburg to Edmonton reset their tram strategies as costs rise and compliance tightens

Europe’s biggest tram networks and a Canadian LRT pioneer are reshaping their procurement plans, pairing larger fleets with stricter bidding rules and, in some cases, local assembly to keep costs under control. Moves announced in Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Russia and Canada point to an urban rail market in flux – one defined as much by platform choices and delivery windows as by legal details that can make or break billion‑krona and multi‑million‑euro orders, and by how city and regional authorities interpret fast‑tightening procurement and state‑aid rules.

Sweden: Gothenburg opens supplier consultations for its next‑generation M35

Western Sweden’s regional transport authority Västtrafik has begun a formal supplier dialogue for the M35 tram series as it prepares a procurement recommended at 65 vehicles. A 2025 feasibility study endorsed 45‑metre cars – with a 30‑metre option retained – to handle forecast growth on Scandinavia’s largest tramway; deliveries are preliminarily slated for 2030-2031. The consultations are being run as a prior‑information “market dialogue” on the EU’s Tenders Electronic Daily and local procurement portals, an early‑stage step widely used by contracting authorities to test market appetite and refine technical specifications before binding tenders are released.

Regional briefings and trade press put the potential outlay in the upper single‑digit billions of kronor, reflecting platform extensions, depot interfaces and supply‑chain inflation since the city’s current long trams (M34) were ordered. Local reporting has cited a range up to roughly SEK 4.5-5 billion if the full recommended volume and options are exercised. The scale places the M35 among Sweden’s larger rolling‑stock investments this decade, with knock‑on implications for municipal borrowing limits and state co‑financing envelopes.

The plan builds on Gothenburg’s deployment of 60 Alstom/Kiepe M34 “superspårvagn” units – 45‑metre, high‑capacity low‑floor trams now entering traffic – and would progressively replace older M29 and M32 stock this decade. For Västtrafik and the city, standardising around long low‑floor platforms is as much a governance decision as an operational one, locking in accessibility, dwell‑time and maintenance assumptions for at least a generation.

Poland: Warsaw voids its framework tender after both bids fall on formal grounds

Tramwaje Warszawskie has cancelled a framework procurement covering up to 160 low‑floor trams after rejecting the only two bids received – from Škoda Group and Hyundai Rotem – on formal grounds. According to the operator, the Škoda submission lacked a required qualified electronic signature on a key file, while Hyundai Rotem was under a state administrative restriction in Korea barring it from public tenders during part of 2025, which Warsaw deemed disqualifying. A new tender is being prepared, delaying a contract that was expected to underpin fleet renewal through the 2030s.

The episode underlines how Europe’s e‑procurement rules bite. Under Poland’s Public Procurement Law – aligned to the EU’s eIDAS Regulation on electronic identification and trust services – bids above EU thresholds must be submitted electronically and signed with a qualified electronic signature, or face rejection. For city‑owned operators reliant on EU cohesion and recovery funds, compliance mis‑steps now carry real delivery risk: projects can lose time‑sensitive tranches if tender procedures are challenged or overturned.

Hyundai Rotem, for its part, disclosed a three‑month domestic bar (6 August-5 November 2025) on taking part in Korean public tenders under national contracting statutes – an administrative sanction whose timing overlapped with Warsaw’s bid evaluation. Tramwaje Warszawskie concluded that the restriction raised eligibility and performance‑risk questions for a long‑term framework, illustrating how municipal buyers are widening due‑diligence checks beyond price and technical scores to encompass bidders’ regulatory exposure in their home markets.

Czech Republic: Brno doubles down on in‑house assembly to stretch its tram budget

Brno’s municipal operator DPMB has signed a framework agreement with Pragoimex for up to 60 EVO2 two‑section “Drak” kits through 2033, valued at CZK 2.28 billion. DPMB will complete final assembly at its Medlánky workshops, preserving skills built in the first 41‑car programme and trimming per‑vehicle costs. For a city operating within national fiscal rules and EU state‑aid limits, the approach allows Brno to spread capital expenditure over several budget cycles while keeping more of the value chain under municipal control.

The first year of the new framework covers five units, with three trams to enter service in 2026 and two more entering assembly. City officials see the model as a hedge against supply‑chain volatility: kit‑based deliveries can be accelerated or slowed without reopening the entire contract, while workshop staffing levels and apprenticeship schemes can be planned with greater certainty.

Canada: Edmonton picks Hyundai Rotem for high‑floor LRVs – while low‑floor deliveries continue

The City of Edmonton has named Hyundai Rotem Company the preferred proponent for 40 high‑floor LRVs for the Capital and Metro lines, with contract award targeted for early 2026 and vehicles due 2029-2030. The fleet will replace 37 Siemens‑Duewag U2 cars from the 1970s-80s and support extensions now under way. Officials said the Korean builder achieved the highest combined technical and financial score among shortlisted bidders CAF and Siemens Mobility, following a multi‑year procurement aligned with the city’s long‑range transit strategy and provincial funding approvals.

In parallel, the city is already taking delivery of 46 low‑floor LRVs from Hyundai Rotem for the Valley Line West project – the first arrived in summer 2025 – ensuring fleet commonality across its low‑floor corridor while the new high‑floor order retools the legacy network. By deliberately separating the two platforms, Edmonton is effectively running a dual‑standard light‑rail system governed by distinct accessibility, operations and maintenance regimes, with decisions on depot layout and training locked in by today’s vehicle choices.

Latvia: Riga sizes a 24‑tram order to match a bus-trolleybus upgrade wave

Rīgas satiksme has launched a market study for 24 new low‑floor trams, each up to 42 metres and at least 180‑passenger capacity, alongside a 100‑vehicle trolleybus renewal. The operator is canvassing delivery times, warranty terms and life‑cycle costs before drafting tender documents, aiming to synchronise rail and electric‑bus procurement so that fleet changes coincide with network redesigns and depot‑charging upgrades mandated by national climate and air‑quality targets.

By flagging length and capacity requirements early, Riga is also signalling to suppliers how far it is prepared to go in rebuilding stops and track geometry to take longer vehicles – a politically sensitive trade‑off in historic districts where street space is contested between trams, cars, cyclists and pedestrians.

Russia: Saratov signs for 16 Vityaz‑M trams with deliveries front‑loaded

Russian builder PC Transport Systems says it has signed with municipal operator Saratovgorèlektrotrans to supply 16 three‑section 71‑931M Vityaz‑M trams, with delivery milestones brought forward as the city rebuilds key routes. Auction documentation set a contract value of about RUB 2.84 billion and envisaged completion by spring 2026, compressing the delivery window to align with track renewals and broader urban‑regeneration works financed from regional and federal programmes.

Front‑loading deliveries allows Saratov to minimise the period in which new infrastructure is operated with life‑expired rolling stock, but it also concentrates execution risk: delays at the factory or in certification would now immediately show up in missed opening dates, rather than being absorbed over a longer phasing.

What the cross‑border pivot tells us

Taken together, the moves highlight three structural shifts in urban rail procurement and governance:

• Longer, higher‑capacity cars to tame core‑corridor crowding and lock in accessibility standards (Gothenburg’s 45‑metre preference; Riga’s 42‑metre cap), forcing city planners to revisit stop spacing, platform geometry and interface with other modes.
• Harder procurement gating – from qualified e‑signatures to bidder eligibility checks – that can outweigh price deltas if formalities fail, with legal compliance under frameworks such as the EU’s procurement and trust‑services rules now treated as a primary risk filter rather than a back‑office formality, as Warsaw’s cancelled tender underscores.
• Localisation to manage cost and risk, including operator‑led final assembly (Brno) and deliberate platform segregation of low‑floor and high‑floor fleets to match infrastructure (Edmonton), giving cities more control over industrial policy, jobs and long‑term maintenance liabilities.

For cities banking on multi‑year EU and national funds or, in Canada’s case, on federal-provincial cost‑sharing, these details increasingly determine whether vehicles arrive before growth hits. In Sweden’s case, the M35 schedule dovetails with a wider Gothenburg upgrade – longer platforms, a new Lindholmen-Eriksberg link and the Västlänken rail tunnel staging – making procurement sequencing as important as unit counts and pushing local politicians to treat rolling‑stock orders as part of a single corridor‑wide investment decision.

Status: As of January 22, 2026, Västtrafik’s supplier consultation for the M35 is active; Edmonton expects to award its high‑floor LRV contract in early 2026; Tramwaje Warszawskie is preparing a new tender; Rīgas satiksme’s market study remains open; Brno’s EVO2 framework runs through 2033 with 2026 assembly under way; and PC Transport Systems’ Saratov deliveries are scheduled on an accelerated timeline into spring 2026. Against a backdrop of rising capital costs and tighter compliance scrutiny, these projects offer an early look at how the next generation of tram and LRT fleets will be shaped as much in procurement offices and legal departments as in rolling‑stock factories.