Europe: 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, Alstom’s 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 confirmed. 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 continent’s entire network.

To date, there are 21 Euroduplex trains travelling on France’s high-speed lines (Paris to the East, Paris to the South-East, Rhine to Rhône) as well as Germany’s (Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart). In the near future, the trains will also travel in Spain (between Paris and Barcelona) and Switzerland (between Paris and Zurich).