Christophe Sirugue, secretary of state for industry and Henri Poupart-Lafarge, chairman and CEO of Alstom, recently presented in Paris the progress of the commitments made by the Government and Alstom for the maintenance of rail and industrial activities at the Belfort site. On this occasion, they assembled the national monitoring committee for the first time, involving the State, the management and the trade unions of the Alstom group, as well as the elected representatives of the territory of Belfort and the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region.
The diversification of the Belfort site, in particular regarding the service and maintenance activities, is underway: since October, Alstom has already invested one million euros in a new industrial building for the maintenance of TGV trainsets, with the financial support of local authorities and the State. This activity will employ 20 people as of 2017.
Investment in the railway vehicles of the future has increased: the State is committed to supporting the program to develop a new range of locomotive for an amount of four million euros, through the Investing in the Future program. This program represents thirty million euros, directly benefitting the Belfort site. The TGV of the Future program is continuing to make progress as part of the innovation partnership with SNCF.
The State has initiated the process of definitive validation of the order for thirty regional TET trains (Trains d’équilibre du Territoire), which will be registered with the Board of Directors of SNCF Mobilités in December alongside SNCF’s order for six TGV trainsets for the Paris-Milan line. The order for 15 TGV trainsets for the Bordeaux-Marseille line will be submitted to the SNCF Board of Directors in January 2017. Last but not least, the order for 20 emergency locomotives will be confirmed by March 2017.
A local committee bringing together local elected representatives, trade union organisations, Alstom and the State services in the regions will be set up under the authority of the Prefect of the Territory of Belfort. It will provide a forum for dialogue, information and monitoring of the honoring of the commitments made, in conjunction with follow-up at a national level.
The Government and the Chairman and CEO of Alstom are delighted with the concrete implementation of the commitments made in October.
Poupart-Lafarge declared, "The commitments made by Alstom on 4 October have made good progress. Investments have begun both for new service infrastructure and development programs."
