Inauguration of Singapore's North East Line Metro

Singapore's North East metro line was today inaugurated by
Singapore Deputy Prime Minister, M. Lee Hsien Loong, in the
presence of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) Chairman, M.
Michael Lim, and M. Patrick Kron, Chairman and CEO of
ALSTOM.

The new 20-km underground line, the first automatic metro
line in Singapore, comprises 16 stations. The contracts for the
fully automatic train control system and the 25 x 6 car
trainsets were awarded to ALSTOM in 1997 and 1998
respectively.

The fully automatic metro system, the largest in the world
in terms of passenger capacity, has been in passenger service
since 20th June 2003. It has been described as the 'way to go'
for public transportation by Hans Rat, secretary general of
UITP, the international association of public transport. In a
statement, the association predicted that more and more cities
worldwide will follow Singapore's recent example.

In just over two months of service, the highly complex
system has been running smoothly with a level of reliability of
99.5 %, 97 % schedule adherence within 2 minutes, and an
average 150,000 passengers per day.

ALSTOM is also supplying all the electrical and mechanical
equipment, including the rolling stock for Singapore's second
automatic metro line, the Circle Line. Once completed, this
will be the world's longest automatic metro line, with 40
km.

Press relations:


S. Gagneraud


(Tél. +33 1 47 55 25
87)                    

internet.press@chq.alstom.com

Investor relations:E. Chatelain


(Tél. +33 1 47 55 25 33)

Investor.relations@chq.alstom.com