August 29, 2014. Russia’s first three-part low-floor tram 71-409 designed and produced at Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation) is now undergoing performance tests in Nizhniy Novgorod.

According to the corporation’s press service, the tram was accepted for industrial production by an interdepartmental committee in 2013. The product received all the necessary certificates.

‘A number of innovative technologies were used for the 71-409 tram; the prototype of R1 was actually based on this tram. Uraltransmash designers drew out a new tram bogie with no common axles between the wheel sets, which reduces the workload on the central part of the tram and makes it possible to lower the floor. The body consists of three parts connected with flexible ‘accordion’ parts. The front and the back parts are mounted on non-rotating bogies and the central bridge-type part is hung on hinged joints of the front and back parts. The low floor of the tram is quite convenient for passengers traveling with children, for the elderly, and for people with disabilities,’ the company reports.