The SL C20 is a type of subway train used in the Stockholm metro,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Between 1997 and 2004, 271 3-car sets, numbered 2000–2270, were delivered to Stockholm by the former Kalmar Verkstad, owned by

Adtranz Adtranz was a multi-national rail transportation equipment manufacturer with facilities concentrated in Europe and the US. The company, legally known as ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation, was created in 1996 as a joint venture between ABB and Daim ...

, later acquired by

Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, with headquarters in Toronto and Berlin. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. ...

. The C20 is a completely new design and therefore is not compatible with other train types in the system. At , each carriage is longer than the previous train types. To save cost and weight, each unit has only four

bogie A bogie ( ) (or truck in North American English) comprises two or more Wheelset (rail transport), wheelsets (two Railroad wheel, wheels on an axle), in a frame, attached under a vehicle by a pivot. Bogies take various forms in various modes ...

s. The middle car has two bogies. The end parts consist of one bogie each and are connected to the central portion via a semi-trailer-direction. Trolley subframes are made of stainless steel, and are less susceptible to corrosion. The first new rolling stock type for the Stockholm metro since the C14 and C15 stock from the mid-1980s, the C20 was at launch advertised as the ''Vagn 2000'' () and marketed as the subway car of the future, though the only customer outside of Stockholm would be the

Bucharest Metro The Bucharest Metro () is an underground rapid transit system that serves Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It first opened for service on 16 November 1979. The network is run by Metrorex. One of two parts of the larger Transport in Bucharest, B ...

, with an order for 18 MOVIA 346 trains that would be based upon the C20 in 1999, with an additional 26 units later in 2004. All C20 coaches have been given their own names, all proposed by private individuals. Many of the names are linked to Stockholm; for example, coach no. 2012 was christened ''Estelle'', after the christening of Princess Estelle.

Refurbishment

The C20F and the 270 3-car C20 sets underwent a mid-life refurbishment at the

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

(formerly Bombardier Transportation) factory in

Västerås Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 mo ...

Västmanland Västmanland ( or ) is a historical Swedish province, or , in middle Sweden. It borders Södermanland, Närke, Värmland, Dalarna and Uppland. Västmanland means "West Man Land" or, less literally, "The Land of the Western Men", where the "we ...

between 2019 and 2023. During this period, the refurbished sets were referred to as C20U or C25. The refurbishment increased the standing capacity of all sets by converting one side of each car to all-longitudinal seating instead of the all-transverse seating currently in use (similar to the C1 and C30), as well as removing a portion of seats in each end of a carriage to create spaces for wheelchairs and strollers. All seat upholstery were replaced and new yellow upholstery to designate priority seating were also introduced, and each refurbished C20 set was retrofitted with 16 CCTV cameras, an increase of 6 such cameras in each car prior to refurbishment. File:C25-interior.jpg File:C25-display.jpg File:SL C20U (15).jpg File:SL C20U (9).jpg File:SL C20U (3).jpg File:SL C20U (1).jpg File:SL C20U (7).jpg File:SL C20U (12).jpg File:C20 Stockholm Interior.jpg

C20F

The C20F is a related prototype, built with "FICAS" technology – a highly innovative modular construction that uses a stainless steel skin bonded to a rigid composite core. This construction results in an extremely thin wall (25mm instead of the C20's 100mm), thereby creating a more spacious interior without altering the outer profile. The C20F has

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C (US) or air con (UK), is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior temperature, and in some cases, also controlling the humidity of internal air. Air c ...

in both the driver's cab and the passenger compartments, whereas the C20 has air conditioning in the driver's cab only. The exterior of the C20F differs by having smooth trolley sub-frames instead of the corrugated trolley sub-frames present in the C20. The C20F car assigned set 2000 and originally christened Incognito, then rechristened Elvira on 22 May 2012, when C20 set 2012, previously christened Elvira, was rechristened the Estelle on the occasion of Princess Estelle's baptism.C20 2012 byter namn
/ref> File:C20F 2000 Elvira.jpg, The C20F train at File:C20Fi.jpg, C20F original interior File:SL C20F 01.jpg, C20F refurbished interior File:SL C20F 03.jpg, C20F refurbished interior File:SL C20F 05.jpg, C20F side-by-side with C20

Notes

References

External links

C20 info page (partially in Swedish)

C20F info page (partially in Swedish)

C20/C20F refurbishment project (in Swedish)
{{Swedish railway stock Bombardier Transportation multiple units Electric multiple units of Sweden Stockholm metro 750 V DC multiple units Train-related introductions in 1998