Perth ‘B’ Series EMU – Australia

The Perth ‘B’ Series fleet of electric railcars (EMU) locally built by a Joint Venture between Downer EDi Rail and Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom) in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia are suburban commuter trains operating in and around Perth Western Australia.

The first train entered service in 2004 with HVAC systems designed, tested and manufactured by Noske-Kaeser Rail & Vehicle. The scope of work included the design of the interior air-distribution system involving the building of a full-size mock-up both the saloon area and the driver’s cab to trial different ducting configurations. The last ‘B’ series EMU entered service in 2019 and now there are 234 cars in service.

Perth has a Mediterranean climate and can experience extended periods of high ambient temperature conditions, resulting in these trains requiring a high cooling capacity HVAC system with a specially designed condenser section to optimise heat rejection in extreme summer months. When these trains originally went into service the HVAC units supplied by Noske-Kaeser Rail & Vehicle were the largest in operation in Australia.

On-going support is provided by Noske-Kaeser Rail & Vehicle service technicians embedded into the customer’s site at Nowergup WA.