SNCF exercising entire option involving 40 Alstom Euroduplex very high speed train sets

SNCF has confirmed it was exercising the entire option for 40 Euroduplex trains, Alstoms double-decker very high-speed train, called for in a contract signed by both companies in 2007. The contract involved a firm batch of 55 trains and an option on another 40, now fully confirmed¹. Delivery of the 40 trains is expected to be spread over the period from 2015 to 2019. 

Extending train capacity is the most appropriate response both in economic and operational terms for handling increases in passenger traffic and saturated corridors on the high-speed network. The latest Euroduplex trains will hold up to 560 seats in total. They are fully compliant with European interoperability technical standards (TSI², ERTMS³). The trains also feature drive equipment suitable for the various power voltages in use in Europe; this allows them to travel across the continents entire network.

To date, there are 21 Euroduplex trains travelling on Frances high-speed lines (Paris to the East, Paris to the South-East, Rhine to Rhône) as well as Germanys (Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart). In the near future, the trains will also travel in Spain (between Paris and Barcelona) and Switzerland (between Paris and Zurich). Since December 2011, they have already travelled over 6 million kilometres.

Every day, there are 1,000 people working on high speed sector within nine Alstom facilities located in France, generating 4,000 jobs throughout the country.

The La Rochelle facility which manages the whole project - performs the studies, the assembling and the fitting of the passenger cars. The other sites involved are Belfort for the locomotives, Reichshoffen for the end car bodyworks, Ornans for the traction motors, Le Creusot for the bogies, Petit-Quevilly for the power transformers, Tarbes for the power converters, Villeurbanne for the on-board computer systems and passenger information, and Saint-Ouen for the overall design.

Press contacts 

Virginie Hourdin / Isabelle Tourancheau Tel. +33 1 41 49 21 36 / 39 95

virginie.hourdin-bremond@chq.alstom.com ; isabelle.tourancheau@chq.alstom.com  

Linda Huguet Tel. + 33 1 57 06 10 42

linda.huguet@transport.alstom.com

⁽¹⁾ Of those 40 options, 30 had already been duly ordered from Alstom in March 2012. This newly exercised option provides a firm order for 10 additional trains for an amount of about 300m.

⁽²⁾ Technical Specifications for Interoperability

⁽³⁾ European Rail Traffic Management System

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High-capacity, comfortable and interoperable