At the beginning of 2023, after almost two years of negotiations with Stadler Bussnang, the project with the internal designation SGB-200/300 was launched in BORCAD. However, under the unpleasant-sounding project acronym FART, the Italian name of Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinesi, an operator and end customer from the Swiss canton of Ticino, is hidden. As the line connects Locarno in Switzerland with Domodossola in Italy, it is also BORCAD’s first seats designed for operation in Italy.
The delivery for this project includes two types of GENIO seats for two different train configurations – a three-car and a four-car electric unit specially designed for this line by the special vehicle construction department at Stadler. For 1st class, the seats are supplied with seat cushion movement and a 500 mm width between armrests in a special fabric and leather covering for the headrest and armrests. In 2nd class, seats with a fixed seat cushion and a width of 450 mm between armrest are used, again in a combination of fabric and leather.
A special feature of this train are the U-shaped benches (Lounge), installed behind the driver’s cab and offering a more casual way of travelling, especially for groups. The project involves the delivery of a total of 940 seats and all trains will be delivered by the end of this year. Stadler exhibited the train at this year’s InnoTrans in Berlin, and the handover of the first train to the operator took place at the end of October.
