RATP and ALSTOM sign a €474 million for the supply of metro trainsets
RATP, Paris’ metro operator, and ALSTOM signed a contract on 20 October 2005 for the delivery of 49 rubber-tyred automatic metro trainsets with an option for 10 additional metro trainsets.
The order was concluded in the context of the automatisation programme for line 1, one of the most important line of Paris network with 700.000 daily users, crossing the city from west to east.
Line 1 will be the second fully automated one in 2010, after line 14, that has entered in service in 1998.
It is therefore scheduled to be the first time in France, and indeed one of the first time in the world that a regular subway line will be turned into an automatic line.
€160 million infrastructure works will be necessary to adapt platforms in the 25 stations and to upgrade the signalling system, that had to be done regardless of the automatisation.
The contract signed between Alstom and RATP for the rolling stock amounts to €474 million. The first metros will be delivered mid-June 2008, the last trains being scheduled for the end of 2010, forecast date for completion of the project.
Expected benefits are a better reliability, an optimisation of interval between trains (85 seconds vs. 105 currently), an increased commercial speed (up to 30 km/h) and an increased capacity of 25,000 passengers per hour.