Exhibition review
InnoTrans 2012 smashes records
With 120,000 visitors across four days, InnoTrans 2012 was the biggest yet, and a real showcase of the current strength of the railway supply industry. IRJ’s editorial team pick through the highlights of this year’s show.
F
RANTIC, rewarding and intense are all words that could be used to describe InnoTrans 2012, the railway megashow that took place in Berlin from September 18-21. Visitors, exhibitors and exhibition space were as expected up on the 2010 edition, and on the whole representatives from railways from around the world and the supply sector reported a positive experience. In total 126,110 trade visitors from 140 countries attended the exhibition, visiting 2515 companies from 49 countries. This was a 19% increase in visitors on 2010, which had reported an impressive 20% increase on
the previous edition. Inevitably the outside track
area was a major attraction with the 3.5km of track packed with new vehicles for customers all over Europe. Highlights from a high-speed perspective were the prototype of Talgo’s new high-speed platform Avril, and the Bombardier- AnsaldoBreda mock-up of the Frecciarossa 1000 for Trenitalia. Bombardier also showed its F140 ac last mile diesel locomotive and Flexity 2 LRV for Blackpool. Other locomotive attractions included GE’s European-spec PowerHaul diesel, Polish manufacturer ZNLE’s new Griffin platform, and
Vossloh’s G6 ME, while Stadler displayed its Flirt emu for Czech open-access operator Leo Express and Siemens unveiled its Warsaw Inspiro metro train for the first time to the public. Inside the exhibition, the
infrastructure and the central halls were extremely busy, particularly on the first three days, and exhibitors reported strong traffic and interest in the products on display. All in all there were 104 world premieres of new products while deals worth more than ƒ1.8bn were concluded during the show.
Such is the size of InnoTrans that it is impossible to retain this flow of visitors in every
hall, particularly those situated on the far fringes. Chinese manufacturers CSR and CNR, who were
exhibiting for the first time on their own stands in Hall 9, and drew a lot of interest in their latest products, confirmed this and expressed a desire to be closer to the centre of the show next time. Of course it is impossible to please everyone, but with all of the halls now full, the question on many people’s lips was where does InnoTrans go from here to retain its impressive growth in 2014? The answer is for another day. But one thing is for certain: 2012 was the most impressive show to date.
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