The someone was me. This CRRC tram is the Siemens Avenio built under
licence. Unlike Skoda, Siemens didn't place a constraint on where CRRC can
sell the licensed trams it produces. So they are coming back to Europe (not
only Portugal, but now Romania too) to compete with the Siemens tram on
home turf. SIemens actually bid for the Porto tender too (with the Avenio)
but came in third place! This would be a reflection of the priority given
to price in European tram tenders. The local Avenio isn't a big seller in
Europe.

The Avenio is not a fixed truck tram. It has limited bogie movements via
linkages between the modules. It's the second best thing to having a proper
bogie tram and better than a fixed truck tram.

The bogie seats in the Avenio nowadays are the normal fore and aft
transverse seats, not the old inward-facing thrones.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/J27_444_Avenio%2C_Fahrgastraum.jpg

This leaves CAF with the honour of having the worst bogie seating among
European trams.

At the end of that article cited by Mark you can see an article about
Skoda's licensed version of the 15T in one of the Chinese cities that it's
being built for, Foshan. Skoda's licence allows CRRC to sell the licensed
model only in China. (Won't necessarily prevent that Chinese specialty,
theft of intellectual property though.)

https://www.cs-dopravak.cz/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/TNH1_108_at_Kangyigongyuan_Station-e1630003165446.jpg

Tony P

On Monday, October 18, 2021 at 1:02:20 PM UTC+11 Mal Rowe wrote:

> On 18/10/2021 11:11, Mark Skinner wrote:

> >

> > Porto awarded an order for 18 trams to the Chinese firm of CRRC

> > Tangshen in 2020:

> >

> It looks very similar to the Siemens Avenio (aka Combino Plus), but with

> only one door on the end units.

>

> See: https://tdu.to/i/26362

>

> I think I recall someone saying that Siemens had licensed their design

> to China.

>

> The bulky intrusive fixed trucks (with or without the 'tennis umpire

> seating') will presumably still be a 'feature'.

>

> See: https://tdu.to/i/28111

>

> Mal Rowe - who found that some visiting Chinese light rail experts

> shared his opinion of the design

>

>

>