Alstom-Bombardier consortium wins trainset contract for Paris commuter rail system’s Lines D and E

Valérie Pécresse, President of both STIF and the Ile-de-France Regional Council, and SNCF CEO Guillaume Pépy signed the deal on Wednesday, January 11, 2017, selecting the Alstom-Bombardier consortium to manufacture a new generation of trains for the Paris Region’s RER commuter system. This initial firm order for 71 trainsets is an outstanding business opportunity for the consortium (70% Alstom/30% Bombardier), and the contract will keep Alstom busy until 2023.

Tomorrow’s trains…

The new X’Trapolis Cityduplex will be a double-decker “boa” train, with no dividers between cars, and each trainset will carry up to 1,860 passengers. The trains will also feature a number of innovations—video security systems, air-conditioning, passenger information and even connectivity. The X’Trapolis Cityduplex comes in two lengths—112 m and 130 m—and can operate at up to 140 km/h. It should be significantly more reliable than the current rolling stock and will use 20%-25% less energy. In all, the contract calls for 130 trainsets for RER Line D and 125 for RER Line E.

… made in (Hauts-de-)France

This is not the first successful venture for Alstom and Bombardier, both of which have sites in the Valenciennes area of Hauts-de-France. The two companies previously joined forces to produce 140 MI09 trainsets for RER Line A in Paris. Under the new contract, the 1,200-strong workforce at Alstom’s Petite-Forêt site will handle project management, design, validation, testing, commissioning and warranty and end-vehicle production. The 2,000 employees at Bombardier’s Crespin facility will design and manufacture the intermediate vehicles. The deal represents 50% of rail manufacturing in France over the next few years, and will secure the future of both companies, preserving jobs and know-how. It may even generate new jobs in engineering and scale-up.