Since the beginning of the year, Alstom has signed several contracts for the delivery of more than 60 LRVs for transportation systems in Latin America and Europe, but terminated a large contract in India.
January of this year was marked for the manufacturer with an order for the supply of 37 GoA4 trains Metropolis and its 20-years maintenance for Santiago in Chile. Winning the $388 mln contract, Alstom beat off CAF, CRRC and Hitachi. New trains will be manufactured at the plant in Taubate in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Each train will consist of 5 cars, forming a train of 102 m long and 2.85 m wide. The carrying capacity of the trains will be is 1,250 passengers, including wheelchair spaces. The first vehicles are expected to arrive in early 2025 and will be operated at Line 7 of the Santiago metro, which is expected to open in 2028.
Also new Alstom’s Innovia 300 monorail trains will be operating in another Latin America country, in Brazil, as part of Sao Paolo metro system. The 19 new monorail LRVs will be built in China by CRRC Puzhen Bombardier Transportation Systems Limited (PBTS) joint venture, which was inherited by Alstom after the French company acquired Bombardier’s rail division in January 2021. New trains will be equal to the rest of the fleet, 86m-long and 3.15m-wide. The seven-car sets will have air-conditioning, gangways for passengers, and CCTV. The trains are produced with a steel underframe and extruded aluminum walls and roofs, and are equipped with water-cooled permanent magnet electric motors. The first delivery is planned for the second half of 2024.
Innovia Monorail 300 in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Source: wikipedia.org
Need to mention, that the line is already running 27 Innovia 300 monorails delivered in 2014 by Bombardier Transportation. Six years after their launch in 2020, some of them had mechanical problems, paralyzing the 15-Silver line. At the beginning of the same year, the tires of the trains burst. Bombardier admitted that the monorails had a design flaw, finding that there were faults in the trains’ wheel system, unprepared for the increasing passenger demand on the line.
A smaller order Alstom received in Italy. In February the contract for the supply of 4 two-car Metropolis GoA4 trains for Turin was signed. With total amount of €156 mln it also includes the installation of CBTC system and an option for additional 12 two-car trains delivery. As the original fleet, the 2.07m-wide Metropolis trains will run in multiple, forming a 52.28m-long trains. They will have capacity for 320 passengers. The project is to be completed by the beginning of 2025.
Render of driverless Metropolis trains for Turin, Italy. Source: Alstom
Also in February Alstom presented the first of the 50 new metro trains ordered for Barcelona’s metro. New trains are manufactured at Alstom’s industrial plant in Santa Perpetua de Mogoda. The contract to deliver this fleet for the Lines 1 and 3 of Barcelona’s metro was awarded to Alstom in 2020. On the Line 1, 24 series 4000 trains built in 1987-90 will be replaced whereas on the Line 3 the total fleet of 18 Series 3000 trains built in 1986-88 will be replaced by the new metro generation. The order has a total value of almost €320 mln.
New metro train for Barcelona. Source: Urban Transport Magazine
At the same time, in March, Alstom terminated a $242.7 mln contract for the design and delivery of 39 six-car metro trains for Mumbai Metro’s Line 4 due to delays and uncertainties in the project. The construction of the 32.32 km Mumbai Metro Line 4 started in June 2018 and the elevated line including 32 stations was about to open this year. However, only preliminary civil work such as utility relocations, soil investigation and construction of casting yards have been completed. The line could be delayed by at least two years. “After signing the LOA, there were general problems with project execution due to delays on various fronts, including construction work”, an Alstom spokesperson told IRJ. He added that Alstom has contacted relevant stakeholders to find a possible solution, but it was decided not to sign the contract after exhausting all possibilities.
