Argentina finalises with Alstom-led consortium the contract
to supply the first very high speed line in America

The line will link Buenos Aires and Córdoba, 710 km
apart, in three hours instead of the fourteen hours the journey
takes today. It will be served by eight double deck very high
speed trains, each with a capacity of 509 passengers, at speeds
of up to 320 kph. The construction of the line will be divided
in two parts: Buenos Aires-Rosario and Rosario-Córdoba
part. Once the basic design is validated, the construction
works are scheduled to last 4 years.

This turnkey project will involve the construction of the
infrastructure, including seven stations, electrification,
signalling (ERTMS level 2), the supply of rolling stock and
maintenance. The trains will be manufactured at Alstoms
French plants and assembled at the Alstom site at La Plata, in
the province of Buenos Aires, and in Rio Tercero, in the
province of Cordoba. Apart from supplying rolling stock, Alstom
will be in charge of signalling, telecommunications, part of
track works, engineering and management of the turnkey project.
Iecsa will be responsible for the civil engineering with Isolux
Corsan, who will also supply the electrification. Emepa will
participate with Alstom and Iecsa to the construction of the
tracks. The project will be financed by the French bank
Natixis.

The Buenos Aires-Rosario-Córdoba line
constitutes the largest very high speed rail project outside
Europe since the KTX project in Korea. It represents an
essential component in the revival of railways in Argentina,
which will have a major impact on the economic development of
the region. Thanks to this contract, Alstom confirms it intends
to be a key player in the expansion of very high speed trains
in the many countries where their implementation is decided or
contemplated, by taking advantage of its technical and
commercial leadership, underlines Patrick Kron, Chairman
and CEO of Alstom.

This order confirms Alstoms leadership in very high
speed. Since the launch of the first TGV** in 1981, Alstom has
gained unrivalled experience: 70% of the trains in service in
the world which travel at more than 300 kph have been built by
Alstom. They have covered over 2.8 billion kilometres (6,500
times the distance between the earth and the moon), carried 1.6
billion passengers and achieved two world rail speed records -
515.3 kph in 1990 and 574.8 kph in 2007.

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Cécile Dodat (Transport)


Tel +33  1 41 66 91 43

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