Leon Linders, President of Alstom Netherlands, unveiled the first trainset of the Amsterdam metro at Alstom’s site in Valenciennes (Nord), where it was designed and manufactured.
Representatives of the city of Amsterdam and the Dutch operator GVB were on hand for the event 1.
The trainset is currently undergoing trials at Alstom’s Valenciennes site and at the Valenciennes Rail Testing Centre. It will be delivered next February and is due to enter commercial service in autumn 2012. All the trainsets will operate on the metro lines in Amsterdam.
In February 2010, the city of Amsterdam (Netherlands) placed a €200 million order with Alstom Transport for 23 metro trainsets.
The contract includes an option for additional metro trainsets for the future North/South line that is currently under construction.
The Amsterdam metro will consist of trainsets from Alstom’s Métropolis range.
Its large doors, visual management of their opening/closing thanks to LED lights, height ceiling superior to the standard (2,30 m vs 2,10 m), platform-height floor, wide seats and gangways will make access and moving around on board much easier.
Enhanced interior design providing more natural light, 100% lighting in LED technology and dynamic travel information displays will improve passengers’ safety and comfort.
The extended length of the new trainsets (116 m) means capacity will be increased by approximately 50%.
Alstom relied on its expertise in metros to execute this contract. Besides Valenciennes, Alstom sites of Le Creusot, Villeurbanne (France), Charleroi (Belgium), Sesto (Italy), Katowice (Poland) and Montreal (Canada) also contribute to the project execution.
One out of every four metros currently in service worldwide was supplied by Alstom.
Over 4,000 cars from the Métropolis range run on the metro networks in Barcelona, Budapest, Istanbul, Warsaw, Singapore, Shanghai, Nanjing, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile and Santo Domingo.
